ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res.

9(05), 709-729

Journal Homepage: -www.journalijar.com

Article DOI:10.21474/IJAR01/12897
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/12897

RESEARCH ARTICLE
3 R FRAMEWORK FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNINGIN THE PANDEMIC ERA AND BEYOND

Garima Arun Tiwari

……………………………………………………………………………………………………....
Manuscript Info Abstract
……………………. ………………………………………………………………
Manuscript History This framework is an outcome of our regular interaction with the
Received: 20 March 2021 parent’s community in the past year.Last year post lockdown parents
Final Accepted: 24 April 2021 reached out to us concerned about developmental issues with their kids.
Published: May 2021 How can we make some engaging fun-learning supplies to support
home-based learning? It was not to discount the effort schools have put
to cope with this sudden change in education delivery. The idea was to
augment the efforts for the overall development of their child.Our
continuous interaction with parents led us to launch a survey to
understand the impact on larger groups across India. We will be
releasing a second report on this framework after we have analysed the
data collected.The framework proposed here focuses on renewing the
strategy for child development adopted so far in light of the unforeseen
situation created by the pandemic. It enables parents and teachers to
work in tandem to create a conducive environment for the overall
development of a child.The report will showcase how the early
childhood community can help ensure that our future generation is less
impacted because of restrictions imposed due to coronavirus.We have
also taken inferences from various research and reports published in the
last year across the globe that highlight the impact Covid19 had on kids
and their development. We have given concise insights on what kids
were missing last year. What steps to take to create the right
development opportunity for kids this year?Finally, it will provide a
way forward, what we early childhood community can do to fill these
gaps with our collective effort and ensure the overall development for
all our kids in the early childhood learning phase.

Copy Right, IJAR, 2021,. All rights reserved.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………....
Introduction:-
How The World Changed For Kids?
One day you were swinging in the garden with kids your age. You come home, have your dinner, and went off to
sleep. The next day you woke up into a very different world. Now you were not allowed to step out and meet your
friends. Online videos replaced your school. Your world was limited to the four walls of your own home. For the
next whole year, you got stuck in the same monotony. And you did not know what to do with what you got?

It is what we gave our little kids last year. We are on the verge of replaying it this year again.

Corresponding Author:- Garima Arun Tiwari

Address:- Credo Learning Pvt. Ltd., India. Email:- [email protected]
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Let us look at some of the indirect impacts’ pandemics have made in the lives of our children. Things that got
overlooked last year because pandemic was a sudden phenomenon and caught us unprepared. This year we have the
advantage of reflecting on last year's learnings. Leverage those to come up with better implementations.

Across the globe, people researched to understand the indirect impact of the pandemic on kids. Various reports and
articles sighted some alarming findings.We have consolidated these findings from various research into broad
categories. In the following pages we will be listing down these.

Things that were missed

Social interaction
What was once so common became so rare in this post-pandemic world. Kids would meet other kids in the
classroom, school bus, playgrounds. These interactions lead to experiences of varied kinds.

Kids would come up with a lot of queries. They would share an observation about others and also the events that
happened in these places. Since last year all this has stopped for many kids.

Picture 1:- Happy kids in outdoor environment.

The interaction with various other people like shopkeepers, vegetable vendors, doctors, teachers, house helps was
negligible this year. Meeting with family and friends and having fun could not be done. This year has stagnated
social interaction-based learning and growth.

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Playtime with friends

Children enjoyed pretend-play with their friends on a playdate. It contributed to their creativity and expanded
imagination. A simple tea party with their dolls and cooking set added so much joy. It facilitated indirectly to
learning etiquettes and good behaviour.

Picture 2:- Little girl enjoying tea party pretend play.

Outdoor play was a significant part of kids' playtime. Now outdoor is not meant for group play but individual
activities.Kids are missing big time on team building, group play, and the lessons of patience, sharing caring that
outdoor group activities facilitated.

Life skill development

In the pre-pandemic world, our kids got several indirect opportunities for gross and fine motor skills development.
Opening the doors and using the knobs several times a day was gross motor skill development. Passing pencils and
crayons to your classmate worked on fine motor development.

Picture 3:- Kids going to school carrying their school bags.

Carrying your school bag and boarding a school bus, finding a place to sit, sometimes requesting someone to make
space for you to sit – all these were indirect life skill development opportunities. The little kids who entered the
early learning phase last year missed all these indirect simulations.

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Learning by observing
Little ones learn and imbibe a lot by observing behaviours and actions, be it their parent, grandparentor teachers,
other community helpers. This year can be termed a lost year in this aspect. When you open a car for an elder and
help them get down gently, your child watches and learns how to do it. In a restaurant, you order food with
politeness your child learns to respect people irrespective of their profile.

Picture 4:- Father and son, observing and learning at an aquarium.

When they see a postman delivering a letter, cobbler mending shoes, a fruit seller pushing the cart, they learn about
occupations. We do not force-feed these into their neural networks. All this is part of learning by observation. It is
not academic, it is learning, and this is important.

Healthy competitiveness
A child who indulges in outdoor play learns to be competitive in a healthy manner. They learn skills from each other
and try to improve themselves. A running race between friends will motivate a few of the kids to better their running
speed.

Picture 5:- Kids having a race in playground.

Watching your peer’s good handwriting in a notebook motivates one to do the same. So many things that flowed
naturally from one child to another are now in limbo.

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Understanding of the outside world

Since their primary interaction is with masked persons, it may impact their understanding of emotional expressions.
They have not been exposed to facial expressions while communicating with people.

Picture 6:- Various masked people.

It is especially true for kids in the early learning segment, where first exposure to the outside world is through
masked men and women. They see sanitizer at all places wherever they go.

In all probability, some of these kids will grow up to be obsessed with hygiene.

Query-based learning
Many a time, the outside world interactions and experiences led to a lot of queries. These queries also formed a
crucial part of child development. A simple question, why a shopkeeper gave you money back, would lead to an
explanation of concept of currency, money exchange, addition, and subtraction.

Picture 7:- A family at the checkout counter in a mart.

Or a query about different coloured number plates on cars would lead to a parent explaining the types of vehicles on
road taxi, private cars, government vehicle.

How many parents would have answered these kinds of queries in this past year? Very few, because there was no
opportunity given to kids to explore, observe the world, and then ask questions.

Impact of this new normal

Young kids are having difficulties going to bed. They stay awake in the night for longer hours. There is a
predominance of anticipatory grief in kids. It is creating anxiety and stress even in kids as young as 5-6years old.

Some kids have turned paranoid about hygiene and cleanliness. They are afraid of stepping out of the house and
breathing in the air outside.

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EXCERPTS FROM
THE GUARDIAN
ARTICLE

Lucy, 35, a mother of two, in Brighton said she

was concerned that her 10-month-old daughter
was missing out on crucial milestones of early
development, particularly social interaction and
understanding of facial expressions.
“My 10 moth old daughter has never sat down
next to another baby,” she said. “When I think Picture 8:- Infographics of various adverse
impact of the pandemic on early learners.
back to my experience when my son was a
baby, it was quite typical of all of my friends Social skills have gone for a toss. Kids are
with children to get together on almost a daily experiencing awkwardness in meeting people and
basis.” connecting with them. One of our team member's
Another parent Hunt, who lives in Sussex, said daughter started school this year. She is a
talkative child. As soon as the online class video
“My daughter has become far more emotional. would start, she would turn mum. She was afraid
She cries at the smallest things. She used to be a of this mode of lesson delivery.
good sleeper, but is now having issues getting to
sleep, and staying asleep, often getting up A neighbour’s 1-year-old granddaughter sees us
several times a night,” “I think it’s the and tries to come to our house. Both her granny
and I wish to be extra safe with her, so we chat
isolation.” with her maintaining a safe distance. The baby is
Hunt is confident that her daughter will catch up missing so much joy and development that used
with education, but has concerns about the to stem from such social interactions.
impact on her mental wellbeing, and the
adjustment back to normal life. A lot of kids are feeling frustrated and have
turned into screen addicts. The reason for this is
losing the ability to be carefree and engaging in
spontaneous playfulness. Kids do feel sad
emotions but find it difficult to express what they
are going through.

When kids went to school, they were involved in

lots of physical activities and interactions with
people. These helped channelized their energy.
Now caged inside the house (especially in a flat
system), kids find solace in online games. It is
making them lazy and laidback. With not many
opportunities for physical movements, kids are
also becoming obese.

The continuous exposure to TV news is

contributing to a heightened level of anxiety.
Kids are afraid to lose their grandparents, parents,
other family members, and friends. Some have
already seen the grief due to the pandemic. Few
are experiencing anticipatory grief. These kids
will also face long-term psychological

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implications.

As a society, we need to act with responsibility and re-create an environment that will allow children to enjoy
childhood even in these circumstances.

Long term effect

In this section, we are touching upon the long-term impacts pandemic circumstance will have on our kids. We have
extracted these from research carried out in various countries. We are mentioning these here so that readers are
aware of these indirect implications.

If we collaborate and initiate corrective measures now proactively, we can hope to mitigate these long-term impacts.

Depression
According to research, kids who have emotionally, mentally struggled during this pandemic may experience
depression later in life. The impact of this will not be visible immediately but after 10-15 years later.

Anxiety
Due to the loss of routine and no socialization with friends, kids are experiencing anxiety and upheaval. These kids
may later have symptoms of disruptive behaviour disorder. Many will have mood and anxiety disorders. No one
knows how long this anxiety will last after the pandemic is over. But experts feel parents can play a crucial role in
preventing these long-term mental health issues.

Loss in Academics
The research in this area is very recent. One that stands out is the analysis by Brown Centre Chalkboard

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It shows that mathematical skills across all grades have fallen in the year 2020. This is signalling towards a deeper
implication of the current scenario on kids learning.

Less productive workforce

It again could be a point of debate since the impact will not be visible immediately. But reports are suggesting that
when this generation enters the workforce, they will be less productive.

“In the UK, it is estimated that the impact on

education thus far may lead to a quarter of the
national workforce having lower skills for a
generation after the mid-2020s.”

An article from ScienceMag

There could be other long-term impacts of Covid on mental health and the overall skill development of kids. It is too
early to analyse and understand the complete picture. We hope that with corrective methodologies and
implementation, we would be able to minimize these impacts and nurture the holistic development of our kids in this
pandemic era.

What needs to be done?

As a society, it is our responsibility and duty to ensure that every child develops into a holistic individual. With the
way things are unveiling, the pandemic is going to stay here for much longer than people expect. A Harvard study
states that till 2024 we are going to live in this COVID era. It means that the pre-schoolers for coming three years
will experience a similar situation when they put their first steps into the world of learning. And by this time, our
current batch of pre-schoolers would have lived in this situation for three more years. It is a cause of deep concern
and needs some concrete actions and measures to be taken.

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Picture 9:- Why we need 3 R framework?

It is vital that all early childhood learning stakeholders – parents, teachers, early year schools and learning partner
and service providers work in collaboration to ensure that development of children is not impacted.

What is 3R Framework?
To address the problem statement highlighted in the early section of this report and cater to the specific area of
developmental needs, we have started using a framework for our parent community.

We are India’s first and only bespoke learning supply team. Our clients are working parents, home schoolers, and
educational institutes. We design and create fun-learning supplies to address the specific development or learning
needs of a child.

This year when parents started approaching us for a different set of requirements, we realized that these are not just
learning issues but a deep disconnect in how children engaged during the pandemic. The solution has to come from
a collaborative effort of the parent community, educators, and learning companies like us.

Hence the 3 R framework came into the picture. It is helping us to understand and identify specific needs better.
Design and propose a fun learning strategy and physical resources to parents to keep their child happily engaged and
developed in this trying time.

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Picture 10:- 3 R framework definition.

Through 3 R we are proposing all the stakeholder of early childhood development to –

Rethink – How kids were learning last year?

Restore – What they missed?

Rejuvenate – What is crucial part of early life?

“International research demonstrates conclusively that 90% of brain growth occurs

by age 5. This means that children’s environment and the inputs and the support they
received in their early years will have an enormous impact on their future.”

UNICEF Report

In the following segment, we will describe our 3 R framework in detail. We hope that fellow educators and other
vendors in the learning space will also take some cues from this. It will help parents build a more conducive
environment at home for complete child development until the external support system of schools and teachers
bounce back in full swing.

Our focus here is on early childhood learning because kids in this age group suffered the most due to the indirect
invisible impacts of the pandemic. The other age groups already had some exposure to the outside world, and they
have past experiences to rely on when they step out again. But the little ones who started their life caged inside the
house met their teacher and classmates for the first time in virtual meet had missed the most. And this will remain
our focus for the 3 R Framework.

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Rethink what?
We ask you to rethink early childhood learning in the pandemic on four aspects
1. How are kids learning?
2. How are we teaching?
3. What are kids learning?
4. What are we teaching?

As you answer these four questions, you will start seeing the glaring gap that has crept into the lives of our early
learners. You will recall this is the age where the majority of development takes place. This year we have not
created enough opportunity for this development to take place properly.

Last year majority of learning in schools moved online. A lot of parents who decided to homeschool early learners
relied on online resources and digital learning subscriptions. TV played nursery rhymes most of the time, YouTube
videos became an integral part of learning, and even worksheets moved online in the form of interactive
assignments. All this added to increase the screen time of our early learners.

Picture 11:- Learning in the pandemic year 2020.

This dependency on online medium had given rise to a series of negative impacts. We have mentioned many of
these in the earlier section of the report. Increased screen time is responsible for disturbed sleeping patterns, eating
habits, and anger issues in kids.

Picture 12:- Excerpts from Business Insider India Article.

At the same time, it did not ease a teacher’s job, increased their workload. In addition to their expected role, they
went out of their comfort zones to create a suitable learning environment for early learners under their care.

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Sometimes it was not well received by young learners.It has been a tough year for both the distributors and receivers
of knowledge and learning.

We have to rethink a way where the use of online content is minimum. Use it to give a head start to kids on a
concept. The kids must be also augmented with physical resources, fun learning games that promote physical
movement, social behavior simulations so that learning and exploration continue without any screen time
dependency.

Picture 13:- Excerpts from Business Insider India Article.

We recommend a rethinking hat must be put by all parents and school management. Devise a blended learning
system that focuses on minimizing screen time for kids and at the same time ensures that learning continues
leveraging the physical and emotional setup of their own home.

Picture 14:- Our Rethink Step from 3 R framework.

Restore what?
In the restore part of the framework, we attempt to bring back what was lost last year. This year we need to recreate
these missed opportunities for development need. We need to guide and help parents to create the right environment
at home.

A lot needs to be done here. What kids lost is not the experience, timely development, and growth, mental health,
few also lost loved ones.

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Picture 15:- Experiences kids missed last year and the impact.

For a child, running around daily in the park, jumping up and down on a see-saw, the physical strength would
develop muscles would get stronger. Last year this was lost.

The simple life skill of greeting someone with a smile might be challenging to manage in these kids. They have not
met anyone outside their family. They have not had an open social interaction with others. They had no opportunity
to explore this aspect of life.

Picture 16:- Excerpts from Business Insider India article

There were fewer occurrences for the indirect practice of gross and fine motor skills. A child going out would open
the door so many times in a day, sit in the car, fiddle with the car – bus fixtures, shake hands with a friend, hug
them, pick up a stone on a beach, etc. All this is missing.

The question arises, how these opportunities will get created. It needs careful planning and effort to put in a learning
activity or resources to cover the above experiences. You can leverage a learning vendor for this purpose or do it on
your own.

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Picture 17:- Our Restore Step from 3 R framework.

The point here is that - the restore process is a must. Till the kids are having limited outside world exposure, it must
be sustained and persisted.

Rejuvenatewhat?
Imagine a nuclear family setup where both parents are working from home in the pandemic. Along with office work,
now they take care of household chores too in the absence of house helps. Due to these, the parents are struggling to
find time to bond with their children. And the time they find is partially taken over by an online learning medium, an
individual activity.

Last year Chinese researchers conducted a study to understand the impact of COVID19 on kids.

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Picture 18:- Result of research done in Shaanxi province of China.

As an outcome of this report and analysis parents were advised to increase

communication with minors, playing collaborative games, encouraging
physical activity, and music therapy. Moreover, report mentioned that parents
need to focus on sleep problems and nightmares in children, and forbid
augmented sleep during the daytime.

Kids are losing big time on the emotional connection. It's not because parents are not spending time. The learning
activities that families are involved in are not facilitating this bonding.

The increased stress levels due to the current situation are also creating an adverse environment at home.

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Picture 19:- How pandemic impacted families and preschoolers.

Kids are also bored with the monotonous life around them. There is not much to look forward to in the day.

We need to revive and bring the simple pleasure of living back into their lives by empowering caregivers and
parents with the right resources. Each one of us who is part of this early learning eco-system must help parents
create a cost-effective stimulating environment in their home. There have to be activities and games that facilitate a
daily connection with the child. It will generate a feeling of comfort around the child. In a comforting and
connected environment child will start to communicate openly.

Picture 20:- Excerpts from Business Insider India article

It needs to be a sustainable model and must scale as the child grows and crosses developmental milestones. It will be
an ongoing process, and we need to ensure that all development aspects are covered.

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Conclusion:-
In this report, we have focused on early childhood learning. Initially, the impact of the pandemic last year was
perceived to be limited to the medical condition, and all the focus was on building internal immunity of the human
body and following protection norms.

Gradually the indirect and invisible effects of pandemic started manifesting. It took more than a year to relate what
is happening with our little kids to pandemic precautions and safety measures.Kids turned crankier, started having
difficulty in sleeping. They were bored with home-cooked meals. Some are not interested in learning, and many
became screen addicts. Even the parents who followed no screen time policy before the pandemic had to give tablets
and mobiles to their kids to participate in academics.

Picture 211:- Excerpts from Business Insider India article.

When the first lockdown opened in India around July 2020, we got different requests for DIY kits, learning game
creations, fun activities for family time, etc. Initially, we also worked on one request at a time. Slowly the dots
started to connect. We realized that there is a bigger problem to be tackled.

“One study has found that a majority of participating parents report that their
children are keeping in regular contact with family and friends via video-chat and
are getting regular physical exercise, factors that can support the mental health
and wellbeing of children and young people.

However, this was not the case with pre-school age children in the survey,
where parents had concerns about their children’s lack of communication
with others outside the household.”

- Excerpts from an article on mentalhelath.org.uk -

After talking to many parents on what issues they are facing and what they expect from a bespoke fun learning
provider, we concluded that it’s a problem impacting a large kid’s population across the globe. Hence, we put our
methodology in a 3-step framework called the 3 R framework for early childhood learning.

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Picture 22:- Our 3 R framework poster.

This framework allows early childhood caregivers, parents, teachers, and other support systems to follow a process
and identify elements for creating a conducive environment at home. We urge all stakeholders to start leveraging
the ideas mentioned in the “3 R framework for early childhood learning in pandemic era and beyond”. Together we
can help build a nurturing development environment at their home till they get the allowance to step out and roam
freely in the world.

Closing this with a quote from famous educational theorist David Kolb.

Picture 23:- David Kolb Quotes.

Limitations
There are limitations to the observations made in this report. These are listed below:
1. We have adopted a structured approach to searching the relevant research studies and articles. But it cannot be
termed an exhaustive search; we may have missed reading a few of the relevant research papers.
2. For the article and research referred here, we have not carried out any additional empirical studies.
3. Comparison of the findings of various reports and research papers mentioned here is not feasible due to
differences in methodology and measurement tools.
4. The implementation of the 3 R framework in our organization is also in the nascent stage. It is the process we
have finalized to follow with our parent community. We will be doing a formal assessment of the impact of this
a year later with enough data to carry out an analysis.

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Note :
All pictures used in the article are taken from author’s paid Freepik subscription.

Appendix:-
It is our first thought paper in this series, and we intend to come with a more detailed version framework and the
processes as we continue to work with our parent community.

At the end we share this chart from UNICEF. It is showing a recommended distribution of activities in a preschool
program and a comparison of Indian Anganwadi and regular school system.

Picture 24:- UNICEF preschooler activity distribution.

It clearly shows that formal teaching is not a part of suggested activities in a pre-school setup. But we are putting so
much focus on reading, writing and arithmetic skills in pre-school years. In the pandemic era and post pandemic we
must shift focus from academics to experiential learning. It’s time that we consider 3 R framework for learning
instead of the traditional 3 Rs of learning.

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Acknowledgement
This paper and the research behind it would not have been possible without the exceptional support of my father and
my daughters. Their continuous encouragement helps me spend more time digging deep into a topic and extracting
information and facts.

I wish to acknowledge the contribution of all the parents who share their dilemmas and issues in nurturing their child
so openly with me. I value the trust and faith they all have in me.

Next, I would like to acknowledge Nishita Bansal for coining the term 3 R Framework and suggesting it. I would
extend deep gratitude to Kanchan Agarwal for helping with the initial structure of the framework.I wish to thank
Mrs. Deepika Joshi and CDR Yasho Vijay Joshi for their valuable reviews of the paper and edits.

In the end, I wish to express gratitude to all the researchers and authors whose reports and articles I combed through
to get more meaningful insight into issues we are trying to address with the 3 R framework.

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