have a son with disability needs that I started here when he was nine weeks old so you know
brand new mom he had a ton of surgeries and so I really developed a niche and working
with families with disabilities trying to navigate those systems and so became the disability
coordinator and and then the health advocate specialist and then I moved into the director role
about right before COVID so that was fun coming into leadership and overseeing health and mental
health right when COVID hit yeah right it's probably a sliding scale of like relatively
speaking you're doing fine yeah right absolutely the way it was for everyone doing COVID
definitely a learning curve yeah there was often you just listen to the horse stories like well
I guess I'm not as bad as them so yeah try it I had yeah it was interesting moving to virtual
for the little bit of time we did and then coming back but yeah yeah okay all set all right
you can just talk to me okay so I guess give me a sense of it's part of the story that we're
working on has to do with speech and language delays that have been on the rise since COVID
how do how do you see that coming in when you talk about the pillars underneath you what does
that fall into your yes so we have actually seen a very big uprising and speech and speech impairments
and language impairments and basically I mean if you think about it they say you know birth to
three that that that time frame is such a window of opportunity and we're really seeing a COVID
generation as kind of how I refer to it these children are really were born either during or
right before the pandemic and so they are they are now needle coming in with really like sponges
like they were sponges during that time of all the good but all the bad right so they had they
were facing isolation stressed with their families trauma things of that nature and so they're coming
in now with really like some challenging behaviors speech delays things of that nature I think we're
up about 10 percent right now in children who who have speech delays diagnosed and I know people often
want to say like what actually caused that and there's you know there's obviously the conspiracy
wing of that like the vaccines then there's like the masking question there were parents on their
phones too much was a simply mental health of everyone in the household I mean can you pinpoint
anyone is it all the above how does it yeah I mean I believe that it's all of the above there's not
because I would say there was speech a speech delays were on the rise even before the pandemic and I
would definitely say you know being on screens a lot you know when we started masking masking
you know became an issue because it does take actually seeing your mouth and understanding how
to move your your mouth and your motor you know in order to speak language so I would definitely say
it's it's all of the above there isn't a one set variable that's that's caused the speech delay but
essentially it exasperated it immensely is there I mean at some level is there a point to even
worrying about what may have caused it as opposed to just understanding it's here and we have to
deal with it yes exactly because I think there is not ever going to be an answer on what is causing
this and we just need to start doing the early intervention services and really changing the
the stigma and taboo behind that a lot of times families are really afraid of their children being
diagnosed with any type of disability and speech impairment is a labeled diet disability however
once they are in early intervention services oftentimes kids have learned that the techniques
and learned and grown within those services that they can dismiss those services as they get older
it's not for every child but a lot of times this is why we do early intervention services
when you look at the the statewide picture because obviously it's not just here right not just this
neighborhood who does anyone have the full capacity to deal with the amount of resources that are
needed to deal with this issue I believe we are definitely in a dire state right now I think with
the shortages in all over the country in all types of careers especially early childhood and
education and you know all the the extra speech pathologists occupational therapists things like
that that we need in order to help with this we are we are really in need of looking at what do we
need to do next in in our policies and in what not in order to help increase services not to say
we don't have we're not like we're completely out of the game here but we really need to focus on
this otherwise you know we have increasing numbers but lowering staff and that's inevitably going to
bring some hardships on on all the children what as an advocate how do you work with parents to
know what is the difference behind but between like a normal speech pattern for age appropriate
versus like this is actually something that needs to be addressed or looked at yes and that and
that's so much easier I think for parents when they have multiple children and they can kind of see
that on their own however typically we see a lot of parents come in who have one child are really
starting to learn the ropes and so the biggest thing is is letting them understand like giving
them the education knowledge behind what are the developmental milestones for children especially
with speech and there we birth to three is an agency that services those children if they are
in need of services so we often we can go on the website and actually do what's called an asq
screening for them and that is an ages and stages questionnaire and so that helps the parent
really lead that their knowledge is the one who's they know their child best so they put down what
their child is or isn't doing in different domains communication being one of them and then they're
able to see are they at risk are they much lower than the average child and if they are then we
explain the services that can come with that and do a referral um so I really really think it's about
parental education and just letting them know that they know their child most and and are their
their first teacher and that there are resources that don't cost money that they can get some early
intervention services and that also with birth to three they don't diagnose children it's just
identifying developmental delays so their child won't have a labeled disability at that age
so do you work with the lina data as well I do not um I know of it in here um right I shouldn't
say I don't work I don't work directly with it I work with with Tony our director of educational
services on what she's seen within the data and then that helps us um inform like where are we
looking at more who are we working with um more intensively uh to get to make sure which is it's
usually our one year olds are toddlers um and then the two year olds as well okay so if you're
interacting with the family trying to explain hey here's what we've seen here's what our data is
picking up are you kind of helping translate for them absolutely yes yes and yeah in more of I
think in layman's terms and that's for me too and just um having a child with us with special
needs you want to be able to hear hear it in a way that you can receive that and so yeah I feel like
my team and myself we are pretty good at being able to um put that in knowledge and put that into
data that really not data but just everyday knowledge that a parent can understand and and
really be empowered to do something with that okay anything else along these lines that you want to
add no I don't think so okay can I get you to say and spell your name and give your title so I
have a correct time so it's nicole spooner and then it's spelled n-i-c-h-o-l-e and then spooner just how
it sounds s-p-o-o-n-e-r and I'm the director of comprehensive services at next door foundation
perfect okay thank you so much faster yes oh yeah I forgot I have this
excellent