Pandemic Babies and Speech

[Anonymous]

My 3 yo nephew is seeing an SLP for pronunciation issues and the therapist says she is seeing a big rise in issues with certain consonants where kids need to see the pronunciation modeled to understand tongue placement. (Hopefully I am not butchering her explanation too badly.) my own 3 yo is also having some mild pronunciation issues we are watching.

There have always been speech issues and delays, so you can’t really say any one kid’s delays are due to masking, but there seems to be an overall increase and I will not be surprised when studies eventually confirm it.

Even without speech problems, the overall loss in comprehension, clarity and ability to focus on facial movements and expressions for almost 2 years now, is a huge concern.

[Anonymous]

My toddler has a big speech delay and the therapist said in no uncertain terms it’s due to the pandemic, and the developmental delays she’s seeing in kids of all ages is horrific.

[Anonymous]

My 2.5 year old has been home with a nanny and has been working with an SLP through Early Intervention since around 2. He probably had about 5 words at the time of his eval, though his receptive language was better than expected for his age. He has a lot of words now and is talking in 3-5 word sentences now, but is hard to understand. His SLP (like many others on this thread) says that covid isolation/masks has made more speech issues.

[Anonymous]

My 2.5 year old is getting speech evaluated through county and private. We have put him in daycare since he was 2, and he is not meeting milestone for speech. He was isolated for 1 plus year with zero kid or new adult interaction other than family members at home before we put him in daycare. His teachers at daycare are masked, and I don’t know how those kids learn how to talk.

The early evaluation tells me that it is good sign that my little one is social and interactive because they see problems of this a lot more social during pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, for those who are concerned that some of these delays may be the result of masking in daycares -- a group of parents is working on this issue. Please use the advocacy guides below to contact your public officials and do also spread the word.

DC daycare advocacy guide: https://tinyurl.com/57sapzjy

Montgomery County daycare advocacy guide: https://tinyurl.com/yd2jr5pu

[Anonymous]

I definitely understand why people think masks on caregivers and/or young kids leads to speech delays but I am also curious why it isn’t universal. I posted above about my pandemic kid who seems pretty average even though she’s been isolated/only seen masked adults outside the family and I wonder why some kids seem to be fairing better or worse? Although maybe this is the same question as what causes speech delays in general. 🤷‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I definitely understand why people think masks on caregivers and/or young kids leads to speech delays but I am also curious why it isn’t universal. I posted above about my pandemic kid who seems pretty average even though she’s been isolated/only seen masked adults outside the family and I wonder why some kids seem to be fairing better or worse? Although maybe this is the same question as what causes speech delays in general. 🤷‍♀️

It may depend on the amount of interaction the baby gets with unmasked adults at home. Or that existing speech issues are made worse by masked caregivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has nothing to do with covid, but get a speech evaluation. The wait and see works with some kids and can really harm other kids.

I don’t really think it’s fair to declare that this has nothing to do with covid. We just don’t know. Kids are isolated and constantly around masked people. Of course this could result in speech delay. To suggest otherwise is just ignoring one possible cause.

+1 why do people make these proclamations about topics they know nothing about? Plenty of anecdotal evidence of an uptick in speech delays. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Because some of our kids have language disorders and we've spent a lot of time and money getting it treated. Why do you assume we know nothing about it? One of my kids was in 4 day a week private speech therapy for many years.

You are an expert in your child's issues, not in speech disorders in every child. You know that people who are truly intelligent know the limits of their knowledge. You just choose to gaslight people you don't know. Not smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some poster here (many months ago) predicted that babies in daycare would most likely need speech intervention and he/she was flamed and mocked for it.

He/she may well be correct.

I remember that thread. That poster was trashed. I wish I could find the thread because I think I remember her ending her participation with something like “you’ll see”.

[Anonymous]

my 17 month old has no words and i'm pretty worried. we are scheduled for an evaluation with an slp next month. i am home with him all day unmasked for the most part, although we recently started daycare and have been in part time daycare for maybe a month now. so i'm not sure how much masking or not masking plays into our situation, but it might? i don't know. trying not to worry but it's hard not to be a little concerned. FTM here.

[Anonymous]

I have a 16 month old who started daycare two months ago. I worry about it. However, I think he’s trying to say words, they are just very unclear. I’ll reevaluate at 18 months. His older brother was speech delayed and is ASD/ADHD, so we’ve clearly got genetic tendencies.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, we received a lot of requests for a petition to update COVID-19 policies in daycares to allow optional masking and modified quarantines. Here it is; please sign and share widely:

https://chng.it/QmGYKmvRy2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I definitely understand why people think masks on caregivers and/or young kids leads to speech delays but I am also curious why it isn’t universal. I posted above about my pandemic kid who seems pretty average even though she’s been isolated/only seen masked adults outside the family and I wonder why some kids seem to be fairing better or worse? Although maybe this is the same question as what causes speech delays in general. 🤷‍♀️

This is like saying “I don’t understand why all students who do the same homework don’t get the same grade.” People - kids especially - learn and develop differently, moron. Glad your kid isn’t struggling, many of us are in a different boat. Buzz off.

[Anonymous]

My fifteen month old isn’t saying anything yet. She’s been in daycare this whole time. I didn’t think there was anything wrong until I met another 15 month old in the park who was saying “swing”, “doggie”, “ball”, “turtle”, “more”,

Should I get an evaluation? Now I’m freaked!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My fifteen month old isn’t saying anything yet. She’s been in daycare this whole time. I didn’t think there was anything wrong until I met another 15 month old in the park who was saying “swing”, “doggie”, “ball”, “turtle”, “more”,

Should I get an evaluation? Now I’m freaked!!!

No harm in contacting early intervention.