Is there an uprise in "late talkers" following the pandemic? Why suddenly see so many of these little ones on our caseloads? The short answer to this question is yes. Following the shutdown of America (and the world), there is an increase in toddlers and preschoolers demonstrating delays in their language development. The real question is why?
From an article in ASHA Livewire, I found a research brief from Komodo Health about the "skyrocket" of pediatric language disorders following the pandemic.
Komodo Health conducted its research using its own medical database. The analysis primarily compared rates of new diagnoses of speech disorders and trends in testing and evaluation in this population in the pre-and post-pandemic setting. For their research, the pre-pandemic era is defined as January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2019, and the post-pandemic era is defined as January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2022.
According to their research brief, compared with the pre-pandemic average, annual diagnoses grew by 29% in 2021 and by 81% in 2022. In other words, The number of children ages 0 to 12 diagnosed with a speech disorder increased by 110% in 2022, compared with the pre-pandemic rate.
Multiple factors play into these numbers and the ones we continue to see. Even though the pandemic technically ended in May 2023, we still have to take these factors into consideration as we are meeting with families of children born and raised during this time frame. Those stressors are still lingering today.
Late talkers have been the topic of research since the 1980s and 90s (and probably even before that). There has always been a segment of the toddler population that experiences expressive language delays. The concept itself is not new.
The pandemic highlighted those differences that were already there pre-pandemic: the family stressors, parent education, differences in cultures, and socioeconomic status. We were forced to face this head-on because everyone was cooped up in their homes and locked out of society. As we began to emerge back into society, those delays and deficits were spotlighted because we couldn't immediately go back to normal.
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