Effects of face masks on word learning in preschool age children
Word learning in early childhood is important for long-term academic and occupational success. Preschool-age children learn words solely from spoken input. Face masks creates barriers to the acoustic and visual components of speech. The purpose of this research is to test the extent to which face masks disrupt word learning, which will help us to understand how to support word learning when access to a high-fidelity speech input is reduced.
This project is funded by a grant from NIH National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH-NIDCD / 3R01HD100439-02) and is a collaboration with Rush University and the BTNRH Language Learning and Memory Laboratory.
