Infants' and toddlers' language development during the pandemic: Socioeconomic status mattered.

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.

The development of gendered speech in children: Insights from adult L1 and L2 perceptions.

Past studies have shown that boys and girls sound distinct by 4 years old, long before sexual dimorphisms in vocal anatomy develop. These gender differences are thought to be learned within a particular speech community. However, no study has asked whether listeners' sensitivity to gender in child speech is modulated by language experience. This study shows that gendered speech emerges at 2.5 years old, and that L1 listeners outperform L2 listeners in detecting these differences. The findings highlight the role of language-specific sociolinguistic factors in both speech perception and production, and show that gendered speech emerges earlier than previously suggested.