>> Across the state are dealing
with a dramatic increase in the number of kids
with speech delays.
It's especially prominent among our youngest students
who were just toddlers.
When the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown here
and now Senior Political Reporters Act,
Schultz tells us what's behind the delays
and whether schools have the resources
to help the students speak up.
>> The children in this early Head Start classroom look
and sound like typical two to three year olds.
>> That's A good, but they were born
during the COVID-19 pandemic
and chances are some of them may be at risk
of developing a speech delay.
>> So we have actually seen a very big uprising in speech
and speech impairments and language impairments. And
>> Nichole Spooner is the director
of Comprehensive Services at Nextdoor Foundation,
a Head Start program in Milwaukee.
She says young children were severely
impacted by the lockdowns.
>> They were facing isolation, stress with their families,
trauma, things of that nature.
And so they're coming in now
with really some challenging behaviors,
speech delays, things of that nature.
I think we're up about 10% right now in children who
have speech delays diagnosed
>> Across the state.
It's the same story.
>> Say "S".
>> I've definitely seen an increase in the number
of referrals.
I would say it's not abnormal for me
to get at least one speech referral per day.
>> Max Long is the director
of Student Services at the Platteville School District.
He has four full-time speech language pathologists on staff,
and their caseloads are maxed out.
>> We often go back to the drawing board quite a bit
with our schedules when we get new students
and our caseloads to try to move things
around and make it work.
>> Once a student is diagnosed with a speech delay, federal
and state law mandates the district provide the services
they need, whether they have the funding or not. There's
>> Just too many kids for me to fit
>> In.
Megan Bolten has been at Platteville for 12 years
and says the issue isn't just that kids can't articulate,
some kids struggle to use speech to interact at all. There
>> Are definitely kids who will just hand you stuff
and expect that you know what they want to do with it
and not say anything to you.
Well, you know, early language skills are one
of the best predictors of academic social
vocational outcomes.
>> Rebecca Alper is a UW assistant professor
and a researcher at the Waisman Center
studying early language and literacy intervention. We're
>> Really just kind of trying to get a sense for
where the child's language levels are.
>> She says the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a lot
of existing health disparities along the lines of race,
income and access to services
and young children were no different.
>> It's very hard to focus on early language intervention
when you're experiencing housing insecurity,
food insecurity, all of those sorts of things.
>> Helper's team is studying how best to support caregivers
of young children since language development starts at birth
>> For do they have this word?
So like if they say Nana for banana,
we would still count it on this measure.
What would be the most supportive long-term is
to really help support early identification
and early intervention.
Because the earlier we can intervene,
the better the long-term prognosis are.
>> I have one for everybody. Peyton,
would you like to put a vest on
>> Back at next door?
In Milwaukee, they use a system called Lena
to help identify kids with possible speech delays.
>> These vests are going to record the amount of interactions
that we're having with each other.
It's gonna tell us how often we talk to each other
because talking is very important.
It's like a superhero this time. Yes,
>> Shakeda Caldwell is the lead teacher in this classroom
and convinces the kids to wear vests
that contain a small device that monitors
and counts interactions between kids and teachers.
>> But guess what it's gonna do?
It's gonna help you to talk more
and it's gonna help your teachers talk to you more
and we're gonna build lots of vocabulary together.
>> They are actually recording the frequency
of the interactions between the teachers and the children.
>> Tonya Hameister is the Director
of Education Services at Nextdoor.
She says, Lena is a coaching program.
When they download the data from the recorder,
it creates a chart to show the number of times a student
and teacher talk to each other.
That lets the teachers know which
students need more attention.
>> So if I have that child who scored lower
who wasn't having many interactions, then I will plan to,
okay, I'm gonna have a one-on-one with this child.
Maybe I'm gonna read more books with him.
I want him to name, I'm gonna ask him
what does he see in the book
so I can get those words out of him.
>> Hameister says, Lena started as a research program,
but now Nextdoor has adopted it
for all early Head Start classrooms
>> For our children.
We saw an increase, especially in the children that were not
as verbal, not as expressive.
We saw an increase,
a pretty significant increase in the amount of interactions.
>> Hameister says Nextdoor is fortunate enough to have a lot
of community support,
but she worries about schools that are dealing
with the budget crunch and a surge in speech referrals.
>> It's a challenge. It is a huge challenge.
We know a lot of our systems are resource depleted
and they're tired.
>> In the last state budget,
governor Tony Evers proposed using the budget surplus
to put an extra $1 billion into special education funding
that would've brought the state's contribution towards
special education costs to 60%.
A dramatic jump from the current 31%
Republicans in the legislature allotted an extra
$107 million statewide over the next two years,
just a 2% increase
and Platteville Max Long says the increase
isn't even a real increase.
>> They did not adjust for inflation.
When you look at those numbers, it's not necessarily
that we're getting slightly more,
we may be getting slightly less.
>> Megan Bohlken says Burnout in her industry is a real concern.
And while they're doing okay right now, next February,
they start screenings for the 4K students
where the next wave of speech delays is
waiting to be identified.
>> The thing that's making me a little overwhelmed is like
the number they keep coming, those referrals keep coming
as those kids are evaluated.
And if they qualify, getting them added onto my schedule,
that's when it's gonna start to be okay.
Now I feel like I'm drowning. Now what are we gonna do?
>> Reporting from Platteville.
I'm Zac Schultz For here and now
>> For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin,
visit our website at pbswisconsin.org
and then click on the News tab.