Robert Augustine, President of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association tells us that polling showed that a majority of professionals believe that backlogs of children who weren’t referred to medical professionals during stay-at-home periods, or whose families waited to seek help due to concerns about COVID-19 virus exposure, are a major factor in the increase. Among audiologists, 34% report seeing more children with delayed diagnosis of hearing loss and 36% report more children with untreated (persistent) ear infections that could interfere with communication development, compared to before the pandemic. And among speech-language pathologists, 84% report more children with emotional or behavioral difficulties; 79% report more children with delayed language or diagnosed language disorders; and 78% report more children with social communication difficulties than before the pandemic.
