Florida State University researchers are studying how COVID-19 is impacting children with disabilities who need help communicating. The specific children looked at are those who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). That means they need to communicate through picture symbols, gestures, computers, tablets, and more.
Researchers interviewed about four dozen families with children who use AAC and speech therapists who serve children with AAC. Participants in the study come from all over the United States.
Researcher Michelle Therrien who worked on the study, says 13 out of the 25 speech therapists interviewed were worried about some of their students regressing because they hadn't been in touch during COVID.
"So some families were responding and able to schedule, but other families they never heard from, and that felt really hard for them to feel like they lost a connection to those students and they don't really know what's happening with them," Therrien says.
Therrien explains one of the speech therapists interviewed said of the 55 children assigned to her caseload, during COVID, she only saw 17 regularly. Therrien says most of the therapists interviewed had lost children from their caseload.
"One of them said, 'I lose sleep thinking about how those students are doing,'" Therrien says.
But Therrien says not all therapists lost contact, some she says, gained more children on their caseload. But one thing that surprised her team, Therrien says, is that some students were thriving during the pandemic.
"We were surprised by the reports of children actually doing well, right? That there were a lot of kids they were seeing gaining in education and AAC."
But Therrien questions what the progress is for the students who weren't able to connect with their speech therapist.
"And so they really just have nothing to report on them because they can't say if they've gained or lost. They're just totally not in communication with them," Therrien says.
Therrien and the other researchers involved in the study hope to publish their findings in a scientific journal.
