Children wearing masks participate in an activity at a day care center in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, on March 10, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday it will begin studies to provide a healthy environment for rearing toddlers born during the pandemic era and growing up in the post-pandemic era.
The city government first signed an agreement with the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to organize a consortium of experts in the field of children’s neurodevelopment, engaging in a series of studies to follow the development of 600 children in the fields of language, communication, psychology, and social skills.
Any parent raising children younger than 5 years of age can sign up for a session at the city’s online counseling platform, where a team of experts in the fields of child psychiatry, developmental psychology and linguistics offer a series of diagnoses on the child’s developmental state.
The city government plans to open up the “Seoul Children’s Developmental Counseling Center” next month in the Seoul Childcare Portal Service and begin accepting applications.
It will also send developmental experts to one childcare facility per district to monitor the developmental state of some 500 toddlers and young children.
The city plans to begin the studies in June and release the results by November. It also plans to open up a children’s development counseling center in March of next year.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
