Side Effects Public Media recently received questions from audience members through our texting group, the Midwest Checkup, about how the changes wrought by the pandemic may affect child development and talked to experts to provide some answers.

Low reading scores have impacted some Indiana students long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now an initiative from Hoosiers Read aims to reach kids at an earlier age by giving free monthly books to kids up to five years old in order to improve literacy across all 92 counties in the state.

Eastern Star Church, in the eastside Indianapolis neighborhood of Arlington Woods, is extending its mission to address the racial health, education, and wealth disparities of children and youth.

Even before COVID-19, the U.S. had a lot of catching up to do for children's mental health. This year, the CDC predicts the country will only meet 65 percent of the demand for child psychiatrists. And Iowa has one of the lowest rates per capita in the country.

The mental, emotional and physical health of children and families can be impacted when a parent is incarcerated.

The study show that the sex of the firstborn child can have an affect on the type and amount of giving that parents engage in.