The Parallel Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Children With Neurocognitive Impairments

The COVID-19 pandemic led to many months of school closures, quarantining, and social isolation for children and their families. This disruption of routine had significant implications for the mental health of children and adolescents, leading to a parallel mental health pandemic among this vulnerable population (Fegert et al., 2020). While these psychosocial effects were most acute during the initial phase, the ripples of the pandemic continue to be felt during the time of this writing (2022), as we continue to be confronted with the ever-evolving virus and its myriad aftereffects. A review of the literature suggests an increase in depression and anxiety among children and adolescents as a result of the sweeping changes to their environment (Barendse et al., 2022; Vizard et al., 2020; Waite et al., 2021). Fear of contagion, boredom, loneliness, increased social anxiety, irritability, inattention, and increased disruptive behaviors were all observed (de Figueiredo et al., 2021; Jiao et al., 2020). For children with neurocognitive impairments, the impact was even more severe due to a proliferation of factors that will be discussed below (Korpa et al., 2021). Nonetheless, despite the pandemic's pointed impact on mental health, some children and adolescents were actually able to thrive and even noted improvements in their social and emotional functioning (Chawla et al., 2021; Silk et al., 2022). This article will examine the specific impact of the pandemic on young learners with the most common types of neurocognitive disorders and provide recommendations for intervention.