Can young children learn from masked faces?
Over the past years, children have seen much more masked faces than before. How does this affect language acquisition?
One factor that might affect learning about language is that seeing someone with a face mask talk might reduce important visual or auditory information.
In one of our studies, we have compared how toddlers recognize known words or learn novel words from a teacher that does or does not wear a mask. Results are being analysed now, so stay tuned!
Another factor might be that adults wearing a mask might talk in a different way when they wear a mask. To find out about this, we conducted a questionnaire survey with daycare educators in France and Japan, asking them about how they changed their speech style since they started wearing masks regularly when interacting with children. Results are being analysed now, so stay tuned!
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