Families with young children are beginning to call out for more support, as it's anticipated the pandemic could have long-term psychological effects on young children.

Jessica Ascione found the 2021 lockdown period an important time to focus on the needs of her children Rohan, 4, and Kayley, 2, to ensure they remained mentally well.

"Our children's routine was disturbed during the last lockdown, but I made sure they had as many activities as possible; we almost made our house too fun, because now they don't want to leave," Ms Ascione said.

"Single parents were allowed to buddy with one other household, so we buddied with one of our friends who had a baby and was also a single parent, so they were still able to have that social contact.

"My children mostly missed their grandparents, because we used to have them visit during the week and help babysit, so they missed seeing them a lot and also missed their activities with them."

Others have found the pandemic experience even more stressful. Mother Sara Thomas, who has a two-year-old daughter, Daphne, and another child on the way, said she was terrified about what psychological effects the pandemic will have on her children in the long term.

"I think that children feed a lot from the anxieties of families, and COVID has been so stressful," Ms Thomas said.

"Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between whether she's just a shy girl or if it's from her being in a stressful environment from COVID.

"I've definitely noticed in Daphne that maybe she's not as confident as I think she could be, or we don't do the things that I probably would have if we didn't have a pandemic, like going to the park or socialising."

While there are hopes the day-to-day effects of the pandemic will soon wane, Ms Thomas said there needed to be further support for families when it came to mental health and children's psychological development.

"The government needs to fund things. We've had such amazing support from our schools and childcare centres, but they're also trying to navigate the pandemic," Ms Thomas said.

"The more support for families - emotional support like psychiatrists, psychologists, counselling - the better, because all of those services are just really invaluable.

"I think that's what has fallen on the education and childcare system. I'm just really lucky that Daphne is part of an excellent childcare centre."

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Experts are beginning to grow concerned about the pandemic's long-term psychological effects. The 2019 Senior Australian of the Year, paediatrician Dr Suzanne Packer, said more attention needed to be paid to this oncoming issue.

"I have enormous worries about this, because it really has not been considered anywhere," Dr Packer said.

"Having a baby in hospital is now a more stressful pregnancy; this affects how you directly feel about the baby, and that directly impacts the way the baby's brain is wired for the future.

"You might be being a superlative mum or dad doing everything beautifully, but you're doing it against the background of tension, which makes your responses and priorities different - and children pick up on that quickly.

"The most important thing to help is to focus on your communication with your child, make it clear you're open to what the child tells you and make sure things aren't misinterpreted.

"It's also important to maintain as normal a life as possible in these circumstances, having the same routine is critically important to children.

"If children get these predictable, regular expressions of love in their everyday life, it will be immensely helpful to the child."

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