“Separate unpublished research also found a dip in words used throughout a child’s day, according to the LENA Foundation, a Colorado-based non-profit that used recording technology to track a child’s language. LENA Foundation has tracked children between the ages of two and 24 months with digital recorders worn in their front pockets throughout the day. Afterwards, researchers uploaded the information to a computer where an algorithm recorded the amount of times the children verbalized and communicated with adults.

The recording devices showed children vocalized less frequently and they also interacted less with adults in back and forth conversations, says Jill Gilkerson, chief scientific officer at the LENA Foundation.”

For more information, stream LENA’s webinar about the findings.