Our guest blogger, Cora Lynn Alvar, is the CEO and Founder of Q Benefits Administration and has served in the employee benefits space since 2000. She shares from the perspective of an experienced human resources professional and a benefits consultant. The article was first featured on LinkedIn.
“If you can’t talk, you can’t work,” says my cousin, a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), when frustrated by the lack of resources and professional development compounded by an ever-increasing workload. As someone with years of experience finding resources to help families thrive, I understand the stressors for parents of children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN), and how those stressors can ultimately lead to parents leaving gainful employment. In a study conducted by the National Business Group on Health, parents of children with special healthcare needs lose approximately five hours of work per week, or about 250 hours a year.
Parents of CSHCN lose approximately 5 hours of work per week, or about 250 hours a year.
As a Benefits Administrator who works closely with Human Resources (HR) professionals, I see employers struggle to retain hardworking, knowledgeable, and committed employees. Consider the latest statistics released by Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) from a survey of 2,028 HR respondents: More than half of HR professionals (58%) said their organization faced its greatest hiring challenge last year. Finding workers with the skills their organization needs is high on the priority list for 70% of HR respondents. Slightly more than half (56%) of HR professionals noted their department “lacks sufficient staff to cover the workload.” Only 19% of HR executives expect to be able to increase their department headcount.4 Couple this shortage with employees not being given the opportunity to tend to the basic developmental, physical, and mental healthcare needs of their family, it is not surprising to find one-third of employees who have children with special healthcare needs will leave the workforce at some point to care full-time for their CSHCN.2 We are repeatedly hearing alarm bells such as, "brain drain," "knowledge loss," "quiet quitting," and "burnout." Companies cannot afford to be dismissive of knowledgeable employees simply because they have non-traditional scheduling needs to tend to family and mental health.
One-third of employees who have children with special healthcare needs will leave the workforce at some point to care full-time for their CSHCN.
As working parents typically do, we rely on school and medical systems to assist in detecting speech and learning delays in early childhood. Those same systems, however, are not as well designed to support CSHCN and their family post-assessment. While immediate support is often provided to the severely-delayed, the moderately-delayed children are left with minimal SLP resources; that is, unless caregivers have the flexibility to provide for inevitable gaps in articulation therapy (or they can afford a private therapist at $80-$125 per hour—sometimes three to five sessions per week!). Either way, there is all too often a disconnect between employees needing to take care of their children and employers wanting to maintain business continuity.
Most employers recognize Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Acceptance (DEIA) efforts are no longer just for window-dressing. Employers have a vested and ongoing interest in understanding the needs of the neurodivergent children of their workforce. Yet many employers continue to lag in recognizing the needs of these children, as their care is the key to both the present and the future of our workforce. Children with vocabulary difficulties at age five are three times more likely to have mental health problems when they reach adulthood than those without speech delays (Law et al, 2009).3 This reason, in itself, should prompt employers to proactively engage and partner with parents to find more flexible solutions that can positively impact employer, employee, and child outcomes all at once.
Some employers, however, have been very sensitive to the needs of employees with CSHCN. Some have created parental networks to provide emotional support and serve as a hub for exchanging information about educational and public resources. Other employers have invited government resource specialists and medical experts to come onsite during Health Fairs to share best practices on CSHCN care. They recognize investment in employees today directly affects their company's productivity five, ten, and even twenty years down the road - it buys goodwill among stakeholders, builds loyalty, and ensures the longevity of the labor force.
Last month, I was compiling vendor information for a client to enhance a multi-generational benefits package and stumbled upon PenguinSmart, a startup that provides digital solutions for parent-led speech-language intervention. I immediately knew I had uncovered a welcomed disruptor in the space of speech therapy. PenguinSmart empowers parents to not only identify speech-language gaps but also have the direction and techniques needed to be intentional in daily life so they can help kids catch up quickly. They were founded in Silicon Valley with a team serving 36 cities across four countries/regions. Ninety-five percent of families they served reported noticeable progress, as PenguinSmart’s methodologies have led to a 500 percent increase in developmentally stimulating interactions at home. Being a service accessible from anywhere with connectivity, PenguinSmart satisfies the needs of parents of CSHCN to be convenient and instantly useful wherever they are. For employers, the benefit is cost-effective, easy to integrate into a benefits portfolio, and supports retention efforts.
I recommend to anyone who is, or has, a loved one in the throes of caregiving for a child with special healthcare needs: request your employer add PenguinSmart to the portfolio of offerings. In a workforce spanning five generations and a waning labor market, employees need broader benefits that are not only cost-effective, but also holistically sensitive to critical family needs. A simple corporate investment now can lead to a sustained, engaged, and thriving company well into the future.
About PenguinSmart
Digital solutions for parent-centered speech and language intervention.
Founded by Harvard & MIT alumni, PenguinSmart combines the latest data sciences with expert insights to empower parents to become a key part of their children's developmental journey. By helping families effectively integrate communication techniques into daily life, we see children show faster improvement compared to relying on weekly clinical sessions alone (in some cases 2-3x faster). We have already served English & Mandarin-speaking families from over 35 cities around the world. PenguinSmart is an Alchemist Accelerator-backed company and was nominated for the IFAH Global "Top 100 Healthcare Visionaries" award.
Our Core Service
Customized Parent Coaching - a comprehensive, online family coaching program to help parents engage their child at home and stimulate communication development with customized training plans, caregiver training, 1:1 consultations with an SLP and coaching team, on-demand online assistant support, and access to a personal learning platform. Each module is 12-16 weeks long.