A recent study from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology has revealed that children as young as five years old can identify emotional sound symbolism, which connects phonetic sounds to emotions. This research utilized the 'gleam-glum' effect, where the 'ee' sound in words like 'gleam' suggests positive emotions, while the 'uh' sound in words like 'glum' suggests negative emotions. Participants, including children aged five to seven and adults, were shown images of happy and sad animals and asked to pair them with made-up words. Results indicated that both children and adults associated 'ee' sounds with happy images and 'uh' sounds with sad ones, although adults demonstrated a stronger association. This study is significant as it is the first to demonstrate emotional sound symbolism in young children, suggesting that the connection between sound and emotion may play a role in language development and evolution. The research team is also investigating emotional sound symbolism in other languages and among Mandarin-speaking preschoolers.