Recent research suggests that babies born during the lockdown are slower to meet their communication milestones.

In this research study - Social communication skill attainment in babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic: a birth cohort study - data seems to suggest that babies born during the lockdown had 'some deficits in social communication', such as being less likely to have one meaningful word, to be able to point and wave bye-bye at their 12-month assessment, than babies from a pre-pandemic/lockdown cohort.

However, in the article - Lockdown babies behind on communication milestones - on The Conversation, which looks at research into how parents can support their children to learn language and communication skills, two simple things are recommended:

Ensure that babies and toddlers are listened to and talked to, whomever they meet.

The video below contains more tips for doing this: