The BICYCLE study is looking at whether Covid lockdowns had an impact on children's talking and thinking skills. This study is based at City, University of London, and involves colleagues at five other universities across England.
The BICYCLE study is seeing 200 children who were born during the strictest Covid lockdown in England (born-in-lockdown, March to June 2020). They are playing a range of fun talking and thinking games with these children, as well as asking parents and caregivers about their child's talking and thinking skills. In just over a year, they will see another 200 children, this time those who were born-after-lockdown (July to October 2021). The BICYCLE study will allow the team to compare talking and thinking skills in children born-in-lockdown and born-after-lockdown. They will also be able to compare parent/caregiver-reported talking and thinking skills in these two groups to a third group - children from an earlier study who were toddlers when lockdowns occurred (born-before-lockdown).
IfJ members have been invited to the free BICYCLE study launch event on Tuesday 2nd July 2024 11:45am-2:00pm.
If you would like to come along, please save the date! All interested people including parents/caregivers, teachers, speech and language therapists, professional organisations, health visitors, policy makers, charities, and service providers are welcome. The event will be hybrid, so you can come in person to the City, University of London campus, or join online via Zoom.
The event will start with a free light lunch (for in-person attendance), followed by around one hour (in total) of talks from the following speakers:
- the BICYCLE team
- a parent of a child born-in-lockdown
- a teacher with experience of educating young children born-in-lockdown
- a representative from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
There will be some limits on in-person and online attendance, so remember to sign up promptly if you would like to join.
The BICYCLE study is funded by UK Research and Innovation: Economic and Social Research