Here is an excerpt from an article from Concord Monitor discussing the impact that COVID has had on child development and why Speech pathologists are needed now more than ever. If you are an SLP or an SLP soon-to-be, check out our openings here to join the AAK team!
That’s why speech-language pathology could be peaking in demand right now. Pediatric pathologists like Bonnie Vaillancourt are dealing with an influx of children whose formative years were clouded with masking and social distancing during COVID.
“Everybody was socially isolated and did not have to use their expressive language,” said Vaillancourt.
Mothers were more responsible than ever to expose their babies to communication skills, but even those parents who tried to compensate for their kids’ lack of socialization fell short, said Vaillancourt. Due to the work-from-home culture of COVID, kids would watch their guardians talk through a screen that did not convey eye contact, body gestures, and other critical skills.
This lack of exposure to typical communication is apparent in the youngest generation. Some children forget that they don’t have masks on, leading to them making inappropriate faces and getting in trouble, said Vaillancourt. Others put themselves in physical danger — climbing on high furniture and banging on surfaces to communicate their needs without the proper tools.
“They didn’t get some of those building blocks to help them with school readiness,” said Tiffany White, senior director of school services in speech-language pathology at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Read the full article here.
