Longer-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children’s Speech and Language Development: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis of Teacher Perspectives, 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted education for children worldwide. Existing research focuses on the shorter-term effects of the Pandemic, with limited research exploring the longer-term effects of COVID, especially with regards to how it has affected children’s speech and language development. The closure of child-care settings as well as social isolation from peers meant that children who should have been developing their language and communication skills were unable to do so in the usual way.

The aim of this study was to explore longer-term effects of pandemic related changes on children’s speech and language development. Teaching staff are well-placed to offer insights into the current speech and language issues children who were infants and toddlers during the COVID-19 pandemic may now be experiencing.

Purposive sampling recruited nine members of teaching staff working with children in Early Years, who would have been infants aged between 1-2 years at the start of the pandemic. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions and analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.

Three themes emerged; Longer-Term Impacts, Changes Due to the Pandemic, and Methods to Counteract COVID’s Effects. The closure of pre-educational settings, social isolation and a lack of health visitor checks has led to a significant increase in the number of children experiencing speech and language development difficulties, which teachers are supporting with play-based learning and specialist interventions.

Although onward data sharing was not included in the original consent process, retrospective consent for onward sharing was subsequently sought from participants.