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Comment & Response
January 4, 2021

Ways to Support Low-Income, At-Risk Young Children During and After Coronavirus Disease 2019—Reply

Author Affiliations
  • 1Child Health Advocacy Institute, Division of General Pediatrics and Community Health, Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC
  • 2Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
JAMA Pediatr. 2021;175(4):425. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5287

In Reply In our article published in May 2020, we highlighted the need for innovative ways of delivering education, health, and social services owing to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 pandemic.1 As the the pandemic progresses, many school districts have implemented virtual learning during the fall semester.2 We appreciate Wong’s identification of a novel way to deliver preschool and early intervention services to children and directly engage parents through employment. Training parents to deliver services could help overcome the challenges that young children face with the virtual learning environment, including attention span, curricular content, and the need for parent supervision even if content is available online. One factor to consider with respect to this approach would be that students would miss the in-person interaction and socialization with their peers that occurs in a classroom setting that can also be beneficial for development.3

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Article Information

Corresponding Author: Danielle G. Dooley, MD, MPhil, Child Health Advocacy Institute, Children’s National Hospital, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington, DC 20010 (dgdooley@childrensnational.org).

Published Online: January 4, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5287

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

References
1.
Dooley  DG, Bandealy  A, Tschudy  MM.  Low-income children and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the US.   JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 13, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.2065PubMedGoogle Scholar
2.
Graff  A. Gov. Newsom orders California schools on watch list stay closed. SFGate. Accessed July 17, 2020. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Gavin-newsom-schools-opening-California-watch-list-15416091.php
3.
Allvin  R. Making connections: there’s no such thing as online preschool. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Published March 2020. Accessed July 17, 2020. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2020/theres-no-such-thing-online-preschool
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