This study was conducted with the aim of examining the overall perception of teachers about infant development (large muscle, small muscle, cognition, language, sociality, self-help) after COVID-19 and the gap between pre- and post-COVID development according to variables and the level of teachers' perception.
The research problems set up to meet the purpose of this study are as follows.
1. What is the overall perception of the teacher's perception of the infant development gap before and after COVID-19?
2. What is the teacher's perception of the infant development gap according to teachers and parents' variables before and after COVID-19?
3. What is the difference in perception of infant development according to the background variables of teachers before and after COVID-19?
The subjects of this study were daycare centers and kindergarten teachers located in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongsang-do, and 314 questionnaires were finally analyzed for the age of the current homeroom teacher before COVID-19 and for teachers of the same age.
The questionnaire was reorganized and used to enable development tests for children aged 2 to 5 years old by summarizing the questions of the Korean infant development screening tool developed by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The summary of the research results derived from this study is as follows.
First, it was found that teachers recognized the development gap in the order of sociality, language, large muscle, small muscle, self-help, and cognition in infant and their development before and after COVID-19, and the largest area of development was the highest in sociality and language development.
Second, the teacher's perception of the developmental gap according to the age and general background of infants and toddlers with COVID-19 recognized the gap before and after COVID-19 at the ages of 2, 3, 4, and 5. In the order of sociality, language, large muscles, and small muscles, the gap was recognized the highest in the sociality of the age of 5. Teachers in national and public daycare centers, private, and kindergartens recognized the gap in development in the order of sociality, language, and large muscles before and after COVID-19. In the variables of parents' socioeconomic level, the gap with high sociality was recognized at the upper, upper-middle, and middle levels. But the gap in language development was high at the lower and middle levels.
Third, the difference in perception of infant development according to the background variables of teachers before and after COVID-19 was the highest in all kindergartens. And teachers' perception of the development gap between infants and toddlers according to the pre-COVID-19 age was found to be the highest in the age of 2 in language. In most other cases, there was no difference between the areas of development, but significant differences were found to be high in the socioeconomic level of parents.