Children’s cognitive development. The impact of the pandemic

[...]individual and social background characteristics were surveyed like age and gender, pupils' immigrant background (ie, their country of birth and the language they speak at home), as well as their parents' level of education and the number of books at home. ZERO GROWTH AND WIDENING GAPS Analysis of the study data reveals that, rather than improving over the school year, pupils' test scores for cognitive development in both inductive and numerical reasoning were no better at the end of the school year than they had been at the beginning. The study's findings therefore support the view that the changed living conditions demanded by pandemic containment measures impeded the age-appropriate, positive development of pupils' cognitive abilities. Pupils who had at least one parent with a higher educational background, as well as those who had more digital resources at home, developed more favourably over the course of the year. Since no positive development could be determined for the whole group of children studied, these findings indicate that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have suffered cognitive losses during the study period instead of showing the age-appropriate increase.