Bushfires, COVID-19, and the 2022 Floods were all major events in our lives that had an impact in varying degrees on all residents of Lismore and the Northern Rivers.

Child developmental delay is one impact that is not widely known, but it has affected newborns to toddlers over the last five years.

Picture a newborn baby in 2019. The bushfires put the community on high alert for a good seven-month period before we rolled into COVID. That baby is now crawling or walking but has very limited social interaction, and even then with people wearing masks, for close to two years before the largest flood in our history devastated the heart of our community which included closing preschools, primary schools and high schools across the region.

That baby in 2019 is five years old today and has not been exposed to a 'typical' everyday life that generations before had experienced.

Sonya McPherson, Director of the East Lismore Community Preschool, has seen first-hand the impact this has had on our children, including her own child, who was born in January 2020. Sonya listed the developmental delays children are experiencing.

"Their capacity to read faces, their capacity to work and how to speak so that we've seen speech delays. How to generally communicate, how to play, how to take turns, even two children walking in a line, getting them to do anything other than with that same person, so trying to constantly get them to mix it up. How to share, emotionally regulate, how to build bonds with more than one person," Sonya explained

"What we've noticed, last year and this year, is we're putting in much larger requests for children to be allowed to start primary school a year later because they've not had the exposure. The 2019 children are now in grade five. They've gone through COVID lockdowns, homeschooling, lack of contact with the community and community-acquired diseases that normally children under three would get, didn't get. The health impacts are really quite significant. It's not just about their immunity; it's even right down to if you don't have enough access to colds for ear, nose and throat to properly flow through them to experience what that's like and how to maintain it. To build up the microbiome all the way through the body. All of that starts to bounce."

"And then we had a flood. We had the loss of community, we have the initial trauma. Now we've got the buybacks where we are getting three to five referrals a day of people wanting to hit the waitlist or to be placed. What we're noticing is there is, literally, a complete migration happening. So people are either getting the buybacks or getting their houses moved, people are constantly searching. The two large daycares have moved out of town, and so you've got a couple of nonprofit preschools and development applications in for Goonellabah. You have two to three-year wait lists on all daycare settings at the moment. That's like Sydney, their Sydney numbers."

"The families are now isolated. We've got some families who were stuck here, some families have moved or moved away, so you've got a greater burden on needing to have care, but again, high-quality care and education is struggling, and they're struggling because children simply don't know how to play. If you think about a board game and the capacity to wait your turn, this all links into stuff that they're going to do at school later. They don't have the same capacity, so the fine motor, pencil grip, gross motor, we're noticing lots of children whose physical core is really floppy. It looks like they've actually got processing disorders and so we brought on a Speech and OT here."

(Sonya McPherson out the front of the temporary East Lismore Community Preschool on the Wyrallah Primary School grounds)

"Some children have missed basic steps because they've been on the floor or they've been in front of screen time for too long and so by age two and a half to three, a child should be able to put a spoon in a bowl, the bowl moves and they put their hand there to stop it. They haven't got the core strength for the crossover collaboration. So, the OT is now trying to get us to literally go back and do things that they should have done when they were 18 months old because it looks like the body doesn't work, but actually, it hasn't been supported to do so because they've not been running around and playing and climbing and risk-taking and knowing how to take risks safely, being taught how to take risks safely."

The result is children are taking the developmental delays into primary school. Sonya says there are transition plans from daycares to schools but the larger conversation is not being had at state or federal level.

As for parents, what can they do to help their children?

"People don't know where to go. They don't even know that they've got the right to ring Community Health and say, I think my child's got a speech delay or I don't know if they're talking properly. Talking with the GP, particularly if it's someone's first child, you don't know what you don't know. They have access to OTs (Occupational Therapists) and speechies (speech therapists). The waitlists are getting huge, and post-flood we've lost a lot, and it's why we've employed a Speech and OT here because no one can get access to them, and if they do, it's a two-year waitlist, or they're closed books. So, by the time they get the support they need, they're already in primary school."

Sonya has given some suggestions so parents can create ways to help children build skills that often people don’t realise the value of, as they may be seen as just normal everyday activities, which they are, but they have great value.

"Read to or with your child every night, even 10 minutes a day, with a physical book. This teaches reading, speech, imagination, builds attachment, and the stories themselves create learning.

"On the weekend, turn the TV off and have a games night. Board games or card games teach children how to concentrate, read faces and express, how to wait your turn, how to learn and follow rules, how to sit for long periods and build core strength and fine motor skills.

"Bring back the good old-fashioned BBQ. A sausage sizzle, a cricket bat and some bubble wands bring back connection, play, relationship building, community support and role modelling social skills.

"Meet with your Doctor once a year. Book a long appointment and ask for a health check to assess all areas of development for your children. All children and adults can get an annual healthcare plan, these are free and covered by Medicare. They then help provide referrals to optometrists for hearing checks, OTs and physios for building core strength and skills, and hearing screens. Every health plan has five paid sessions to Allied Health such as OT, Speech and exercise physiologist etc.

"Ring Goonellabah Community Health and put your child’s name down for a hearing screen when they’re three (3). It might take 6 months but this gives time if there are any issues, such as glue ear.

"Staying in touch with family and friends, and catching up at the park builds the social connection children missed out on during COVID and post the flood. Help show them how to talk to others at the park and play together, as this is something that they often do not know how to initiate or understand what the social rules are when playing as this was interrupted for those born in or after 2019.

"Remember that the more screen time they have, the less they’re learning everyday skills. Some screen time is great and relaxing, perhaps one night a week cooking with your children, often they will eat more veggies if they make it with you. They build fine motor skills, they will often share problems when doing something together and they build their connection with you while learning.

"Remember, you are not alone. Lots of children and families are going through the same thing, you just don’t realise it because we all say we are okay. We have a large number of preschoolers who are going to do three years at preschool, at least 25% of children who could go to school will come back next year. They missed out on lots of the social and emotional opportunities in the last five years."

"We can help you with that. It is actually a really easy process."

The unknown for the developmental delay is what effect it will have on our children, who do not get help, when they are teenagers.......