Frederica Freyberg:

Schools across the state are dealing with a dramatic increase in the number of kids with speech delays. It’s especially prominent among our youngest students who were just toddlers when the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown. “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz tells us what’s behind the delays and whether schools have the resources to help the students speak up.

Zac Schultz:

The children in this early Head Start classroom look and sound like typical two- to three-year-olds. But they were born during the COVID-19 pandemic and chances are some of them may be at risk of developing a speech delay.

Nichole Spooner:

So we have actually seen a very big uprising in speech — speech impairments and language impairments.

Zac Schultz:

Nichole Spooner is the director of comprehensive services at Next Door Foundation, a Head Start program in Milwaukee. She says young children were severely impacted by the lockdown.

Nichole Spooner:

They were facing isolation, stress with their families, trauma, things of that nature, and so they’re coming in now with really some challenging behaviors, speech delays, things of that nature. I think we’re up about 10% right now in children who have speech delays diagnosed.

Zac Schultz:

Across the state, it’s the same story.

Max Long:

I’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of referrals. I would say it’s not abnormal for me to get at least one speech referral per day.

Zac Schultz:

Max Long is the director of student services at the Platteville School District. He has four full-time speech language pathologists on staff and their caseloads are maxed out.

Max Long:

We often go back to the drawing board quite a bit with our schedules when we get new students in our caseloads to try to move things around and make it work.

Zac Schultz:

Once a student is diagnosed with a speech delay, federal and state law mandates the district provide the services they need, whether they have the funding or not.

Megan Bohlken:

There’s just too many kids for me to fit in.

Zac Schultz:

Megan Bohlken has been at Platteville for 12 years and says the issue isn’t just that kids can’t articulate. Some kids struggle to use speech to interact at all.

Megan Bohlken:

There are definitely kids who will just hand you stuff and expect that you know what they want you to do with it and not say anything to you.

Rebecca Alper:

Early language skills are one of the best predictors of academic, social, vocational outcomes.

Zac Schultz:

Rebecca Alper is a UW assistant professor and a researcher at the Waisman Center studying early language and literacy intervention.

Rebecca Alper:

We’re really just trying to get a sense for where the child’s language levels are.

Zac Schultz:

She says the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a lot of existing health disparities along the lines of race, income, and access to services and young children were no different.

Rebecca Alper:

It’s very hard to focus on early language intervention when you’re experiencing housing insecurity, food insecurity, all those sorts of things.

Zac Schultz:

Alper’s team is studying how best to support caregivers of young children since language development starts at birth.

Rebecca Alper:

Do they have this word? So like if they say nana for banana, we would still count it on this measure. What would be the most supportive long-term is to really help support early identification, early intervention because the earlier we can intervene, the better the long-term prognoses are.

Shakeda Caldwell:

I have one for everybody. Peyton, would you like to put a vest on?

Zac Schultz:

Back at Next Door in Milwaukee, they use a system called LENA to help identify kids with possible speech delays.

Shakeda Caldwell:

These vests are going to record the amount of interactions that we’re having with each other. It’s going to tell us how often we talk to each other because talking is very important.

Young child:

It’s like a superhero this time.

Shakeda Caldwell:

Yes.

Zac Schultz:

Shakeda Caldwell is the lead teacher in this classroom and convinces the kids to wear vests that contain a small device that monitors and counts interactions between kids and teachers.

Shakeda Caldwell:

But guess what it’s going to do? It’s going to help you to talk more and it’s going to help your teachers talk to you more and we’re going to build lots of vocabulary together.

Tonya Hameister:

They are actually recording the frequency of the interactions between the teachers and the children.

Zac Schultz:

Tonya Hameister is the director of education services at Next Door. She says LENA is a coaching program. When they download the data from the recorder, it creates a chart to show the number of times a student and teacher talk to each other. That lets the teachers know which students need more attention.

Shakeda Caldwell:

So if I have that child who scored lower who wasn’t having many interactions, then I will plan to, okay, I’m going to have a one-on-one with this child. Maybe I’m going to read more books with him. I want him to name. I’m going to ask him what does he see in the book so I can get those words out of him.

Zac Schultz:

Hameister says LENA started a research program but now Next Door has adopted it for all early Head Start classrooms.

Tonya Hameister:

For our children, we saw an increase especially in the children that were not as verbal, not as expressive. We saw an increase, pretty significant increase in the amount of interactions.

Zac Schultz:

Hameister says Next Door is fortunate enough to have a lot of community support but she worries about schools that are dealing with a budget crunch and a surge in speech referrals.

Tonya Hameister:

It’s a challenge. It is a huge challenge. We know a lot of our systems are resource depleted and they’re tired.

Zac Schultz:

In the last state budget, Governor Tony Evers proposed using the budget surplus to put an extra $1 billion into special education funding. That would have brought the state’s contribution towards special education costs to 60%, a dramatic jump from the current 31%. Republicans in the Legislature allotted an extra $107 million statewide over the next two years, just a 2% increase. In Platteville, Max Long says the increase isn’t even a real increase.

Max Long:

They did not adjust for inflation. When you look at those numbers, it’s not necessarily that we’re getting slightly more. We may be getting slightly less.

Zac Schultz:

Megan Bohlken says burn-out in her industry is a real concern, and while they’re doing ok right now, next February they start screenings for the 4K students where the next wave of speech delays is waiting to be identified.

Megan Bohlken:

The thing that’s making me a little overwhelmed is the number. They keep coming. Those referrals keep coming as those kids are evaluated and if they qualify, getting them added onto my schedule. That’s when it’s going to start to be, okay, now I feel like I’m drowning. Now what are we going to do?

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Platteville, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”

Frederica Freyberg:

For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBSwisconsin.org and then click on the news tab.