Infants' and toddlers' language development during the pandemic: Socioeconomic status mattered.
Book reading
COVID-19 pandemic
Child development
Screen exposure
Socioeconomic status (SES)
Vocabulary development
Journal
Journal of experimental child psychology
ISSN: 1096-0457
Titre abrégé: J Exp Child Psychol
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 2985128R
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
12 2023
12 2023
Historique:
received:
01
03
2023
revised:
31
05
2023
accepted:
06
07
2023
medline:
22
8
2023
pubmed:
24
7
2023
entrez:
24
7
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about children's development. Here, we examined the impact of the pandemic on Canadian infants' and toddlers' (N = 539) language development. Specifically, we assessed changes in 11- to 34-month-olds' activities that are known to affect vocabulary development (i.e., screen and reading times). We also compared these children's vocabulary sizes with those of 1365 children collected before the pandemic using standardized vocabulary assessments. Our results show that screen and reading times were most negatively affected in lower-income children. For vocabulary growth, no measurable change was detected in middle- and high-income children, but lower-income 19- to 29-month-olds fared worse during the pandemic than during pre-pandemic times. Moving forward, these data indicate that educators and policymakers should pay particular attention to children from families with lower socioeconomic status during times of crisis and stress.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37487265
pii: S0022-0965(23)00120-0
doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105744
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
105744Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.