If Your Toddler Isn’t Talking Yet, the Pandemic Might Be to Blame

Children who spent little time socializing are talking later and treatment is scarce

By Sara Toy of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Babies and toddlers are being diagnosed with speech and language delays in greater numbers, part of developmental and academic setbacks for children of all ages after the pandemic. Children born during or slightly before the pandemic are more likely to have problems communicating compared with those born earlier, studies show."

"In an analysis of nearly 2.5 million children younger than 5 years old, researchers at health-analytics company Truveta found that for each year of age, first-time speech delay diagnoses increased by an average of 1.6 times between 2018-19 and 2021-22. The highest increase was among 1-year-olds, the researchers said. 

Social isolation coupled with pandemic-related stress among parents likely contributed to the delays"

"Families were less likely to start therapy or get their children evaluated during the pandemic"

"nearly 80% of speech-language pathologists were seeing more children with delayed language or diagnosed language disorders than before the pandemic. Nearly four in five reported treating more children with social-communication difficulties than before the pandemic."

"The lack of socialization likely contributed to their speech and language delays"