ASHA Voices

ASHA Voices


Children in the Epicenter of the Opioid Epidemic

January 06, 2022

We speak to a mother who adopted a son with prenatal opioid exposure, and we hear from her Marshall University colleague, a researcher whose conversations with school-based speech-language pathologists reveal where the opioid epidemic may be showing up on caseloads.


They say that the effects of prenatal opioid exposure can last beyond infancy and early childhood, with children presenting characteristics that can sometimes be mistaken for other diagnoses.