COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains.

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/5ejwu_v1
• Publication Date: 2025-05-30T12:27:40Z
• Authors: Natalia Kartushina; Nivedita Mani; ASLI AKTAN-ERCIYES; Khadeejah Alaslani; Naomi J. Aldrich; Alaa Almohammadi; Haifa Alroqi; Lucy Anderson; Elena Andonova; Suzanne Aussems; Mireille Babineau; Mihaela Barokova; Christina Bergmann; Cara H. Cashon; Stephanie Custode; Alex de Carvalho; Nevena Dimitrova; Agnieszka Dynak; Rola Farah; Christopher Fennell; Anne-Caroline Fievet; Michael C. Frank; Margarita Gavrilova; Hila Gendler-Shalev; Shannon P Kong; Katherine Grace G...; Nayeli Gonzalez-G...; Ewa Haman; Erin Hannon; Naomi Havron; Jessica Hay; Cielke Hendriks; Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus; Marina Kalashnikova; Junko Kanero; Christina Keller; Grzegorz Krajewski; Catherine Laing; Rebecca Allred Lu...; Magdalena Łuniewska; Karolina Muszyńska; Luis Eduardo Muñoz; Karli M Nave; Nonah M. Olesen; Lynn K. Perry; Caroline F Rowland; Daniela Cristina ...; Jeanne L. Shinskey; Aleksander Veraksa; Kolbie Vincent; Michal Zivan; Julien Mayor
• Keywords: 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period increased time at home with caregivers, limited access external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity examine associations between caregiver-child activities language development. vocabularies 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 13 countries 12 languages were evaluated beginning end first lockdown their respective (from March September 2020). Children who had less passive screen exposure whose caregivers read more them showed larger gains vocabulary development during lockdown, after controlling for SES other activities. also gained words than expected (based on normative data) lockdown; either aware child’s development, or benefited from intense interaction both. We discuss these results context extraordinary circumstances pandemic highlight limitations study.