The Impact of COVID-19 on ‘Spanish-Speaking’ Children’s Phonological Development

• Published in: Education sciences Vol. 14; no. 8; p. 807
• Main Authors: Acero-Ferrero, Marían, Lozano-Blasco, Raquel, Moreno, María Jesus Cardoso, Benaque Giner, Sandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2024
• Subjects: Accuracy; Age; Auditory Perception; Child Development; Children; Children & youth; Cognitive development; Communication; COVID-19; Developmental Stages; Disease transmission; early childhood education; Emergent Literacy; Emotions; Epidemics; Interpersonal communication; Interpersonal Relationship; Intonation; language; Language acquisition; Listening Comprehension; Native Language; Negative Attitudes; Nonverbal Communication; Perceptions; Phonemes; Phonemics; Phonetics; Phonological Awareness; phonological development; Phonology; Social aspects; Spain; Spanish; Spanish language; Spanish Speaking; Speaking; Speech; Speech Communication; Suprasegmentals; Voice quality; Vowels; Spain
• ISSN: 2227-7102; 2227-7102
• DOI: 10.3390/educsci14080807

Communication and social interaction have been limited during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to check if 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children manifest alterations in oral language according to their stage of language development. To carry it out, the Induced Phonological Register developed by Monfort and Juárez was applied to analyze 150 participants (77 boys and 73 girls) with an average age of 4 years and 6 months. Children who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic for an extended period show a delay in the acquisition of some phonemes compared to children who undergo typical phonological development as specified by Laura Bosch (2003) regarding language development for Spanish children. Likewise, they present a higher number of erroneous words and phonemes than expected for their age.