How did COVID-19 affect young children’s language environment and language development? A scoping review.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic a diverse body of research has examined how pandemic-related disruptions affected young children’s language learning opportunities and development. In this talk, I will present the findings from a scoping review of 94 studies published between 2020 and 2023 from across the world that investigated the impact of the pandemic on the language development of children from birth to 6 years of age. Findings showed that the reviewed studies used a wide range of data collection periods and methods to achieve 15 broad language related aims. Overall, results showed that children’s language-learning environments were significantly impacted, with variability over time and across countries and socioeconomic groups. These changes were associated with known influences on language development, and with the emergence of new factors such as mask-wearing. Most studies that focused on language outcomes reported impacts on children’s language skills, while a smaller proportion of studies showed no changes compared to pre-pandemic cohorts. This suggests that not all children were impacted in the same way and their environments played an important role in these differences. I will conclude this talk by discussing why the pandemic continues to have implications for children’s language learning and development to date, and by outlining recommendations in the case of future comparable events.

Teams link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/33810063282855?p=drc3Y5xteIW6y0P8sG