The effects that the coronavirus pandemic may have had on the language development of children are still poorly known. A study carried out by scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and published in the Journal of Speech Therapy, Phoniatry and Audiology evaluates the level of vocabulary and morphosyntactic in a sample of boys and girls aged 18 to 31 months.
As part of their study, the team examined developmental data on both vocabulary and morphosyntax—the ability to produce increasingly complex sentences—from 153 infants.
They compared data from two groups matched in age, mothers’ educational level and belonging to similar nursery schools: the PRE group, made up of children born and evaluated before the pandemic, and the POST group, made up of children born between October 2019 and December 2020.
“The restrictions arising from the pandemic have limited the social interactions and relationship contexts of the children in the POST group,” the authors explain. “The linguistic stimuli they received were affected both by the reduction in the variety and frequency of social interactions and by the use of masks, which make understanding difficult and prevent them from taking advantage of visual information when learning the language.”
The linguistic stimuli they received were affected by the reduction in the variety and frequency of social interactions and by the use of masks.
This context has generated certain subsequent difficulties in their communicative development.
Authors of the study
According to the results, these circumstances could have contributed to slower language development in this group, compared to boys and girls of the same age who lived their first two years prior to the pandemic.
Early detection
The results obtained show lower scores in vocabulary and morphosyntactic development for the POST group compared to the PRE group, evaluated through the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI).
“These findings show the sensitivity of communicative and linguistic development to the social context, and highlight the importance of closely monitoring language development in this group, especially in those children who could present greater risks of difficulties,” highlights Eva Murillo, co-author of the job.
The findings show the connection between the development of communication and language to the social context
“Early detection of any difficulty in communicative and linguistic development facilitates early intervention, thus improving the prognosis,” adds the researcher. “In addition, this early detection also helps reduce the social costs of interventions in the medium and long term.”
The exceptional nature of the situation generated by the pandemic has caused indirect effects in the medium and long term that we must now face. The Autonomous and Complutense Universities of Madrid offer specialized training in this area through the Master in Specialization of Communicative and Linguistic Development in the Stage from 0 to 6 years.
Reference: Murillo, E. et al. “The effect of the pandemic on language development in the first two years of life” Journal of Speech Therapy, Phoniatrics and Audiology (2023)
