Interventions to support early childhood development in times of COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Background: COVID-19 which has come as an emerging disease was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. In an attempt to limit the spread of this virus, strict measures were taken amongst which closure of schools and child care facilities were also implemented. This impacted the holistic well-being of the children. Objective: This systematic review aimed at identifying early childhood development (ECD) interventions targeted to children 0-8 years of age conducted and reported during the COVID-19 pandemic in low and middle-income countries, and also to identify the barriers and facilitators to taking up ECD activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: This systematic review considered all published and pre-print studies published between 31 Dec 2019 and 31 Dec 2020 and followed PRISMA guidelines for the conduct of the systematic review. Databases such as MEDLINE, Embase, ERIC, CINAHL, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Google Scholar, and the WHO COVID-19 database were searched. Result: Zero studies were included at the end of the full-text screening. Few papers were fitting well with the scope of the paper; however, those papers were not fitting the study design. The majority of those papers were position papers and opinion papers. Conclusion: This empty review highlighted a major research gap in the literature. There were no studies conducted to address the interventions taken place in the pandemic to support ECD. There is a dire need to address the issue by conducting more quantitative and qualitative studies. *Correspondence to: Zohra S Lassi, Robinson Research Institute, the University of Adelaide, Australia, E-mail: Zohra.lassi@adelaide.edu.au