The Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children’s Writing: a Follow-up Replication Study

The COVID-19 pandemic and the move by governments worldwide to cancel in-class instruction and shift to emergency remote instruction in March and April of 2020 created an unprecedented disruption in children's education. As the pandemic evolved into the 2020/2021 academic year, concerns were raised about negative effects on students' learning. This longitudinal replication study examined these effects for Norwegian students. In an earlier study (Skar et al., Journal of Educational Psychology, 2022), first-grade children tested immediately after remote instruction in Spring 2020 (During COVID-19 cohort) scored lower on writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than first-grade students from the same schools tested one year earlier (Before COVID-19 cohort). The present study compared the same During COVID-19 cohort (333 girls, 308 boys) one year later at the end of second grade to a Before COVID-19 second-grade cohort (888 girls, 780 boys) from the same schools tested two years earlier before the pandemic. The initial negative impact observed in first grade was no longer evident one year later at the end of second grade.