Socialization is a crucial factor in children’s language acquisition. Lack of socialization could affect language development, causing a delay that can be spotted early by identifying neurological soft signs (NSS). This study aimed to compare NSS and language performance between two samples of children (pre and post-pandemic) since the lockdown carried out by Covid-19 restricted socialization in post-pandemic kids.

Two groups of 30 children (aged 3 to 5 years old, ten children per age group; 50% boys and 50% girls) were assessed with the NSS and language subtest from the SNB-MX battery (Salvador, Tovar, Segura, Armengol & Ledesma, 2019). The first group was selected and evaluated before the covid lockdown; the second group was selected and assessed after the lockdown. Hence the second group of children was less exposed to socialization since schools changed to digital format. We compared the language performance of both groups.

Results include the comparison between samples pre and post-pandemic. Post-pandemic children performed lower in language skills. We also found a correlation between the language and NSS.

We conclude that socialization is an essential factor in language development. Also, identifying Neurological Soft Signs could help predict language delay. We thank project PAPIIT IN308219 for sponsoring this research.

Print Knowledge in children starts with recognizing and characterizing printed figures; it is a precursor of other skills like letter knowledge and phonological awareness. The goal was to assess print knowledge components and their predictive value in emerging literacy in a sample of Mexican preschoolers.

60 children (aged 4 to 6 years old; 50% boys and 50% girls) were tested with an analysis of the visual synthesis and the figure copy from the SNBP-MX and the Rey Complex Figure Test (children’s version).

Children with lower performance in the SNBP-MX cannot use visual information to perform correctly at the Rey Complex Figure. They have problems in the reproduction of the figure, and they do not respect the components of the Print Knowledge: 1) figure building characteristics (size, rotation, orientation) and function (relationship with the background and with other figures).

Early visual perception skills impairments are related to the execution of elements from the Print Knowledge. Therefore, it is expected that children with low performance at visoperception and spatial tasks will have difficulties with early literacy. Since visual information is needed for the copy and learning of writing figures, print knowledge could be categorized as a predictor of the early word and letter recognition skills. We thank project PAPIIT IN308219 for sponsoring this research.