Desarrollo del lenguaje y exposición a las TIC en la primera infancia: scoping review de investigaciones posteriores al confinamiento por COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 lockdown imposed a widespread context of home-based education mediated by digital technologies. The scientific community became interested in the phenomena that emerged, and discussions on the impact of technology on child development outside the educational context were revived. Objective: This paper analyzes scientific findings on ICT exposure and language development in early childhood, based on scientific literature published in contexts following the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: This is a scoping review grounded in the narrative documentary tradition, with a qualitative epistemological orientation. Fifty-one (51) open- Access papers published between 2020 and 2023 in the Web of Science and Science Direct databases were selected following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A four-phase process was applied: search, selection using a double blind screening procedure— organization of the corpus, and thematic analysis. Results: Studies reviewed show diverse designs and limited comparability but consistently highlight how ICT impact on early language development depends on mediation, content type, and usage context. Discussion: Parenting, cognitive diversity, and communication emerged as key themes, revealing how contextual and individual factors shape recent understandings of ICT use and oral language development in early childhood. Conclusion: Unsupervised, prolonged ICT exposure may hinder early oral language development, especially when it replaces caregiver interaction and occurs in inequitable contexts.