By Jed Lanyon
Acts of kindness shown during the Covid-19 pandemic have typically left one speechless, however, the generosity shown by Yarra Ranges Speech Pathology (YRSP) aims to do just the opposite.
Following concerns about the impacts the coronavirus lockdowns have had on young children, YRSP held a free clinic at Badger Creek Primary School to screen kindergarten students who will be attending the school as preps next year.
Speech pathologist Eva Harrold told Star Mail she aimed to enlighten parents about any issues and help them with referral to services.
“What we know is that children weren’t attending kinder as they normally would have. They also had limitations on childcare. Children were being cared for more centrally from home and usually by a parent.
“There is a certain element of risk in that in terms of transitioning into school because they weren’t being observed by their early educators as they normally would.
“What we’ve noticed is that some parents have become more aware of their children’s delays in difficulties because they’ve spent more time caring for them in lockdown and trying to educate them and noticing some social difficulties, learning difficulties, speech, language behaviour, generally what we call developmental delays are evident.
“Of the children who were offered the opportunity, about half have taken it up.”
Ms Harrold said a goal of the clinic would be to help the school in developing small groups socially and identifying any children who may benefit from school based funding in which they may otherwise “slip through the net”.
One parent, whose child took part in the YRSP clinic spoke to Star Mail about how they’re feeling from the kindergarten to primary school transition.
“I signed my son up to it (free speech assessment) just to get an understanding of how he is with words, speech, language and hearing.
“I think it’s beneficial for him and for me as the mum to see how he’s going and how he’s going to go in the next year or so.
“I definitely think the pandemic has played a massive impact on kids because they’ve missed out on so much in kinder and in school. I think they’ve missed out on the kinder teachers teaching them the writing and learning side of it and then communicating with their friends and how they play and this is a good way to see how he is travelling.
“It’s been difficult because you want them to be ready for primary school and so you wonder whether or not they are ready because they’ve missed out on such a big chunk of the year because of coronavirus.”
Badger Creek Primary School principal Narae Preece was thankful to YRSP for their support in the community.
“It’s incredibly important, particularly when going through a pandemic or a situation where we need to build up on our resilience,” Ms Preece said. “It will help make things easier going forward to support everybody. We’ll benefit from the information they give us and we’ll use that to help parents support their children.
“We know that this information will be really helpful in making sure these kids who may have missed out because of the pandemic will get a better chance at school.”
