Developing Young Children’s Social Skills While Socially Distanced

The work of young children is to build language and social skills, much of which happen through family relationships, play and social interaction with peers. With kids spending so much more time at home and online, it’s important to create lots of opportunities for our young children to practice these skills in other ways. We sat down with Shirit Megiddo, Speech & Language Pathologist at CHC, to learn how to support your young child’s development, often using existing routines and items you already have around the house!

Our guest, Shirit Megiddo, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, Speech-Language Pathologist at CHC and mom of a two-year-old son, shares typical developmental milestones and ideas for keeping young children engaged both on- and offline as the pandemic wears on.

It’s hard to know what’s normal and what’s not these days as our children approach a full year of mask-wearing and social distancing. We as parents are constantly trying to balance what’s safe with what’s optimal for our child’s development. Shirit reminds us that the time that you’re already spending cooking and cleaning and gardening and folding laundry are perfect launchpads for developing communication and life skills. She even helps us figure out how to incorporate peer-to-peer and pretend play into our child’s day, and reminds us to never underestimate the power of a cardboard box, a paper towel roll and an imagination.

All Voices of Compassion podcast episodes are available on-demand to stream or download. Listen to Developing Young Children’s Social Skills While Socially Distanced online at podcasts.chconline.org. You can also subscribe to Voices of Compassion on Apple podcasts, Spotify and other podcast apps.

Do you need someone to talk to? CHC can help. We invite you to call or email our Care Managers at 650.688.3625 or careteam@testing.chconline.org to set up a free 30-minute consultation. CHC teletherapy services are available now.