Are you a parent or teacher who has noticed that COVID-19 measures have affected children’s communication and social skills? We asked the team from Annabelle Kids (AKIDS) to identify a handful of ways we can help to address these shortcomings. Annabelle Kids is a multidisciplinary children’s therapy centre offers a range of services; these include speech and language therapy, parent education to support children’s learning at home and sessions with a team of experienced speech therapists for kids. They see kids from 6 months up until 17 years for speech therapy and occupational therapy.
#1 Practice communication and social skills at home
Children pick up conversational rules, learn new words and social communication skills as they interact with the social world around them; it’s the most essential ingredient for language development.
The challenge
From an early age, children use facial expressions to express themselves and understand others. They interpret non-verbal cues on faces to understand emotions in communication. For example, a grin to reflect joy or a scrunched-up face to reflect disgust.
When communication cues are obscured by masks, children’s understanding of speech and language in relation to contextual cues may be affected. Masks can also result in muffled speech. Sounds become mixed and communication in noisy environments can make it harder for children to understand what others are saying.
Masked communication disproportionately affects children with hearing problems or poor phonemic discrimination skills as most rely on lip-reading. The loss of this visual cue exacerbates the distortion effect by the mask. Speech can become incomprehensible and this may create confusion in children who are at the prime age to learn new words. They may struggle to differentiate between similar sounds, which may affect their word acquisition and pronunciation.
How speech and language therapy helps
Encourage your child to practice the skills needed to develop communication and social skills. Use simple sentences and make use of intonation and facial expressions to make interactions engaging for children.
For example, with younger children, narrate what you or your child is doing. “You’re pushing the blue car.” “You’re drawing a cat.”
As the child grows older, encourage reflection and structuring of thoughts into words. This could be done by asking questions about stories that they’ve read, about their day in school or about their interactions with their peers and teachers.
In this way, parents would be able to gain insights into their child’s communication and social skills. It may be possible to learn more about their social or communication challenges through questions like “Who did you sit or play with during recess”, and “What did you talk about?”
#2 Develop social cues
The challenge
Communication carries the inherent element of social awareness. Effective communication entails asserting our needs while respecting others. Social distancing and home-based learning deprive many children of opportunities for social interaction and, subsequently, the acquisition of social and communication skills. Social situations may feel particularly foreign and daunting to children who lacked social contact during the pandemic. They may withdraw from or participate less in those situations. In turn, this can result in difficulties communicating effectively with different people.
How speech and language therapy helps
When teaching communication skills, get your child to think about how others may feel if they say things in a certain way, how they can infer others’ feelings, and brainstorm alternative ways of communicating their needs and wants.
Give your child the opportunity to communicate with you by silently counting to 10 while waiting for your child to respond. Whenever your child practices desired social communication behaviours, reinforce them by praising them.
Now that restrictions are largely eased, parents could hone their child’s communication skills by involving them in more social activities.
#3 Build emotional literacy
The challenge
A child may become overwhelmed in social situations and display typical signs of anxiety. These include somatic symptoms such as a stomach ache, heart palpitations, or behavioural symptoms including avoidance of social situations and refusal to go to school. It could also present as anger and tantrums as children struggle to regulate their emotions.
How speech and language therapy helps
Rather than criticise a child in these situations, turn them into an opportunity for parent-child bonding. Encourage awareness and problem-solving.
Help your child identify what they’re feeling and associate the feelings with bodily sensations. Verbalising encourages them to be aware of and comfortable with their feelings.
Offer and brainstorm with your child some healthy ways to manage their anxiety. These could be simple tips like taking a sip of water, taking a deep breath, or observing others before participating.
When to consult a speech and language therapist in Singapore
For children with developmental concerns, early intervention is critical for language development. Speech and language therapists at AKIDS guide children who struggle with speech, language comprehension, and social communication using play-based methods.
As a part of a multidisciplinary team, the speech therapists for kids work hand in hand with child psychologists and occupational therapists to develop a holistic understanding of each child’s unique needs. After assessment, speech and language therapists develop an individualised plan that targets areas of speech and language development that the child has difficulties in.
Some examples of the speech and language activities that AKIDS speech therapists for kids may engage your child in include articulatory activities to correct their sound production, or practice of memory techniques like visualisation to improve their working memory to hold sentences during conversations.
Annabelle Kids
510 Thomson Road, #15-03 SLF Building
8189 3820 | appointments@akids.sg
annabellekids.com
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