Babies born in 2020 can't communicate as well as they should, according to new research from Harvard Medical School.
More than 21,000 babies were examined during the study and it found the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted their communication skills.
Starship developmental Paediatrician Jin Russell said unfortunately, the study's findings are not surprising.
"We have seen that the pandemic has had wide ranging impacts and in older children we've seen that it's impacted their learning, mental health and their socialising.
"So no, it wasn't surprising at all unfortunately to see that there have been impacts on young children's development."
Russell said there are two main factors contributing to why a child's development may have slowed as a result of the pandemic and lockdowns.
"Firstly, there were just fewer opportunities for parents to take their babies out and we know that when we're out with babies that's when they tend to get exposed to a wider range of words, you know a larger vocabulary.
"But the other reason is because parents were under a lot of stress, there was less bandwidth, if you were a mum or dad at home trying to juggle work and home-schooling older children, you might of had much less time to be responsive to your baby."
Russell said to help this, she would like to see an investment in New Zealand's Well Child/Tamariki screening programme, a free health service provided to children under five.
"When it first was launched it was ground-breaking but we need a lot of investment in that programme and we need to make sure we're reaching families who don't usually connect with the health system as well."
She said despite the developmental challenges, there is still a lot that parents can do for their young ones to help.
Parents do not need to panic and at this young age, a child's brain is very "plastic" and adaptable, Russell said.
"If we can provide the right kind of environment and stimulation, I have a lot of confidence that babies will be able to catch up."
Talking and singing to your child is important, even if they don't speak or respond it's crucial that parents engage and communicate with their baby, she said.
"That's something that's called serve and return, which is another concept that's come out of the Harvard centre for developing children.
"Serve and return is about you know you're baby is trying to communicate something to you, wait for them to speak to you and then communicate back to them."
She said the back and fourth dialogue with an infant is what will really help them to development those key communication skills.
"But if you have got concerns about your baby, for instance if your child has turned two and their not yet joining words together, that's a good time to talk to their GP, let us check their hearing, let's just make sure that they've got everything they need."
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