Bob Augustine, President of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association

A new national poll reveals an increase in hearing and speech issues among children since the pandemic. The COVID lockdowns may have contributed to missed appointments and delayed diagnosis. Early intervention is crucial, and parents should visit identifythesigns.org to learn about the signs of hearing and speech difficulties. They can also find professionals to assist them. Pediatricians and general practitioners can provide referrals to certified audiologists and speech-language pathologists. Monitoring children's behavior and seeking professional help is essential. The website also provides information for school-age children and emphasizes the importance of early intervention. Parents can consult with healthcare providers or visit identifythesigns.org to find professionals in their area. Hearing is critical, and early intervention is key for successful treatment. May is many things including Better Hearing and Speech Month and there are professionals around the country that are reporting a rise in rates for hearing and speech related issues for children since the pandemic and this is according to a brand new national poll and it's interesting to see what role the COVID pandemic and the lockdown orders may have had on this and my guest who's here this morning to talk about this is the president of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. We have Bob Augustine who was with us here this morning at the RNJ Morning Program. Bob hi there it's Burt Barron WRNJ Radio in New Jersey. How are you today? I'm well and thank you for having me. It's my pleasure as a guy who takes his hearing very very seriously and this is how I make my living as part of my ability to be able to hear clearly and hear well. Is there a connection that maybe you've seen in your organization Bob? The COVID orders, the stay-at-home orders and maybe making sure that children were getting the correct hearing attention and taking care of their hearing the way they should have. Is there a connection between the two that your group is noticing? There is and I want to call your attention because May as you said it's Better Speech and Hearing Month and I want to make sure that everyone listening remembers two critical messages from our members of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Your listeners can find all they need to know about the signs of a speech language or hearing difficulty at a website called identifythesigns.org that's identifythesigns.org and then listeners once you know the sign please take action when you see those signs because our members in the American Speech Language Hearing profession know that early intervention is the most effective form of intervention. So I'm going to repeat that the website is identifythesigns.org and if a child shows those signs take action and at that same site you can go to the ASHA profined site and find a professional to assist you. Good information. The connection with the the lockdowns did we see that Bob but maybe people weren't getting the medical attention? That's correct because the pandemic impacted both the lives of children and adults who would have otherwise children would have participated in daycare, they would have gone to school, they would have played with others, they would have visited their relatives and they may have missed their appointments to their pediatricians and other professionals who would have seen the sign. Our members found that one-third of our audiology numbers found that children have been they've seen children with delayed diagnosis of hearing loss and as you point out Bart that's important that we find that out early and 80% of our speech language pathology members reported more children with social behavioral difficulties in combination with delayed language development and that's why it's really important to get to a professional and have these things evaluated early because we know that early intervention is the most successful and effective intervention so if you see any of these signs that we're talking about that are at the identify the signs dot org we want to make sure that the child is evaluated early. Is this something that a Dutch family or a regular family practitioner or someone general practitioner Bob can they spot that in just the course of providing routine medical care maybe as part of an annual examination or maybe just a simple wellness check is this something that the the everyday doctor will check for when they're examining a child or a family member in an examination room? Yes typically you're a pediatrician or physician that will have a connection to an ASHA certified audiologist or speech-language pathologist to whom she or he can refer to to have a complete evaluation done and it's important that we know these things for example some of the signs that you were talking about that might indicate that there's a hearing loss is the child's not responding to sound and not responding speech and a family member or a physician might pick this up and make the necessary referral to an audiologist. Similarly a physician or a family member might note that a child's not responding to efforts to interact. A child is not saying those first words by 19 months or not responding to efforts to communicate and point to objects by 10 months. When we see these behaviors our referral directly to an ASHA certified audiologist or speech pathologist from the professional or from the family member is indicated and again some of those signs include the child's not responding to sounds, not interacting with others, not responding to commands by 10 months and not saying those critical first words by 19 months. It's just incredible now how the level of awareness it seems like that parents and doctors and teachers and everybody who has a role in the life of a child just how aware and how in tune you have to be with just by monitoring a child's behavior and just being able to pick up on little signs and maybe little things that they're doing to determine if there's any developmental issues or anything there. My guest is with me this morning is Bob Augustine he is the president of the American Speech Language Hearing Association here at the RNJ morning program and this is something that this is a constant thing Bob you want to make sure that you're always monitoring your children's behaviors maybe their tendencies and things like that and seek professional help and make sure that you get the care that's needed for a child anytime they're showing some of these signs and symptoms and checking out that website sounds like that's a great idea for any parent to do. Really really important again identify the signs.org because that you'll give you the details for how to identify a speech language or hearing difficulty in your child and it will help you help guide you toward professionals who can help and we want to make sure also that those children who are getting ready for school some of those signs that we'll be looking for is that that child's not showing an interest for interacting with reading material and that was really important sign that we might look at for those school-age children getting ready for school. Bob as important as I said hearing is to me I would not know the first thing about tracking down an audiologist or a speech language pathologist is this something that a parent would would research and arrange on their own do they need some sort of medical referral to to move along in this process how does that work? Typically you would consult with your physician or pediatrician or your public school any of those organizations can give you guidance on how to get in touch with an ASHA certified audiologist or speech language pathologist or again at identifythesigns.org there is a link to find a professional and you can go right to that link and find professionals in your area that may be serving your area through health healthcare clinics to your schools or in private practice. Really great information and I had a scary thing maybe 10 or 12 years ago Bob where I lost almost all of my hearing in one of my ears and for a guy that needs to hear and create content and I'm in the audio creation field for a guy who couldn't hear for a period you know thank goodness there was a therapy and a treatment for me where my hearing was fully restored and believe me I am grateful every day to be able to have a hearing and I take it very seriously I protect my hearing I make sure that I do everything that I need to do it is such a critical component of our lives and it's something that you want to make sure that for young children that everything is on track the way it needs to be so as we wrap up did you want to give that website one more time please? I will it's identifythesigns.org and Bert one of the things that I want to amplify that you just said is that identifying these signs early and early intervention early intervention is key early intervention is the most successful intervention you discovered you had some concerns you were you got early intervention that's so important when you see these signs that are outlined at identifythesigns.org it will take you to the necessary information that you need and early intervention is the key as you discovered. Bob Augustine president of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association thank you for the time and for the very important information today and thank you again for checking in with the program this morning. My pleasure thank you for having me