Longer-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children’s Speech and Language Development: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis of Teacher Perspectives, 2024

Nash, Hannah and Taylor, Charlie (2025). Longer-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children’s Speech and Language Development: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis of Teacher Perspectives, 2024. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-858126

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Data description (abstract)

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted education for children worldwide. Existing research focuses on the shorter-term effects of the Pandemic, with limited research exploring the longer-term effects of COVID, especially with regards to how it has affected children’s speech and language development. The closure of child-care settings as well as social isolation from peers meant that children who should have been developing their language and communication skills were unable to do so in the usual way.

The aim of this study was to explore longer-term effects of pandemic related changes on children’s speech and language development. Teaching staff are well-placed to offer insights into the current speech and language issues children who were infants and toddlers during the COVID-19 pandemic may now be experiencing.

Purposive sampling recruited nine members of teaching staff working with children in Early Years, who would have been infants aged between 1-2 years at the start of the pandemic. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions and analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.

Three themes emerged; Longer-Term Impacts, Changes Due to the Pandemic, and Methods to Counteract COVID’s Effects. The closure of pre-educational settings, social isolation and a lack of health visitor checks has led to a significant increase in the number of children experiencing speech and language development difficulties, which teachers are supporting with play-based learning and specialist interventions.

Although onward data sharing was not included in the original consent process, retrospective consent for onward sharing was subsequently sought from participants.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Nash Hannah	University of Leeds	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4357-945X
Taylor Charlie	University of Leeds

Sponsors:

N/A

Topic classification:

Education
Psychology

Keywords:

COVID-19, SPEECH, LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION, CHILD DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Date published:

23 Dec 2025 09:39

Last modified:

23 Dec 2025 09:40

Coverage and Methodology

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Participants (n = 9) were female staff from two primary schools in Manchester England, five from School 1 and four from School 2, seven of the participants had roles as class teachers and the remaining two were SENCOs. The participants were aged between 28 and 53 years with a mean age of 41.5 years; School 1 is a mixed gender community school with a total of 472 students with 258 pupils eligible for free school meals, and School 2 has 483 mixed gender pupils with 90 pupils eligible for free school meals (Department for Education, 2024). For the purpose of analysis the teachers were labelled numerically from teacher 1-9 (T1-T9). The initial interview questions were generated following a literature review of existing studies looking at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on pre-school children’s language and communication development (McCormack, 2023; Snyder et al., 2022). Questions were refined and adapted to account for the longer-term impacts due to the length of time between the present study and the start of Pandemic. Participants were provided with an information sheet and a consent form. They were also asked for demographic information; their age, role in the school, and relevant teaching experience. The interviews lasted a mean length of 18 minutes, ranging from 12 to 28 minutes, and were carried out within an empty office at each school. The interviews themselves were digitally recorded and then transcribed by hand. The data were transcribed orthographically by the researcher in line with the recommendations set out by Braun and Clarke (2013). This means that transcription was done verbatim using spoken words and had features of non-verbal informational cues, such as laughter and fumbling, with short and longer pauses denoted by (.) and (…) respectively, which were included to aid interpretation ready for reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2013). Line and page numbers were used for each transcription. The transcriptions were anonymised using numbers for staff members and the schools, with any identifiable information being removed.

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