Why Chatter Really Matters: How the pandemic has delayed communication in children.

Ask anybody who worked in Early Years through the pandemic if they have noticed a difference in the speech and language abilities of the children and you will hear a resounding yes.

Amongst the many pieces of research being undertaken since the hight of the pandemic, the one that alarms me the most is concerning the state of children’s speech which, according to a survey by ICAN (now Speech and Language UK) in 2021, has impacted over 1.5 million children of all ages.
I think we can agree that the lockdowns had a huge impact on the way children socialised, and this social isolation (if you will) has had a huge impact on the way children access and develop speech and language. Prior to the pandemic, children may have attended mother and toddler groups, nursery and engaged in play dates with other children, all of which are rich and diverse exposure to language.

However, in March 2020, all that was abruptly stopped as the country battled to contain the deadly effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. Whilst I feel the measures taken by the UK Government were necessary, I also feel that not enough was being done to support our youngest children as they were forced into social isolation and removed from those wonderous learning experiences.

At the time, I was a deputy manager of a nursery, a nursery that was forced to close because of our location. This meant that we abruptly lost the daily interaction with our children and had to hurriedly adapt to “the new normal” (I loathe that saying now). I immediately started a Facebook group for our setting and pushed a message out to encourage our families to join up, which they did. I posted a daily video of me reading a story and other members of the team suggested games and activities or posted links from useful websites. We even held weekly Zoom calls with our families, however these always felt a bit one-sided, but were to done try and continue to maintain links with our families, who had now been cast adrift and cut off from their usual world of nursery and work.

Working families, particularly those working from home, now had to juggle the need to work with the need to care for and educate their children. Regrettably, and through no fault of their own, some parents resorted to sitting the child in front of a tablet or TV through the day. Whilst this enabled the parent to work, it didn’t provide those opportunities for interaction and conversation which would normally happen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way pointing the finger of blame at parents, these were unprecedented times and families had to do what they had to do.
My main issue is with the government response, I have to use the phrase “too little too late” as they clearly think that this is an overnight fix and chucked a little bit of money at it. According to figures I found in a BBC News item from November 2023, there are over 65,000 children and your people on NHS waiting lists, and with the NHS already grossly underfunded and overwhelmed, these children are going to be too far behind to catch up properly.

In November 2022, as part of the DfE’s Early Years Education Recovery Package, Stronger Practice Hubs were opened across England. They were designed to support early years providers in narrowing the educational and developmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this support was only designed to last for 2 years and is due to finish later in 2024. This is what I mean about the support being short-term for a long-term problem. It’s like trying to put a sticking plaster on a broken leg, no use whatsoever.
However, you and I know that Early Years has never been one to just lie down and do nothing, instead we are making sure we are upskilling our staff to better support our children and promote those wonderful opportunities for strong language acquisition as early as possible.
We are even supporting our parents and giving them the tools and resources needed to fully support their children. In one setting I worked in, we produced story bags that families could borrow. The team had great fun making these up and rose to the challenge of creating exciting games and activities around a particular story in a way that was accessible for families.
This is what we do, but sometimes, it feels like we do it alone. But we always do it for the children.

Further Reading:
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young children’s communication and language development:
https://send-network.co.uk/posts/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-young-children-s-communication-and-language-development (Accessed 26/08/24)
Speaking Up for the Covid Generation:
https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/speaking-up-for-the-covid-generation-i-can-report.pdf (Accessed 26/08/24)
The Covid kids starting school unable to speak:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67511716#:~:text=Data%20from%20health%20visitor%20checks,rise%20from%2011%25%20in%202018. (Accessed 26/08/24)
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children’s socio-emotional wellbeing and attainment during the Reception Year:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED620337.pdf (Accessed 26/08/24)