Experts warn that after COVID-19, preschool children are slow to speak because of this reason-Life Health

After a year of hiatus due to the COVID-19 epidemic, preschool children across the country have returned to school, however, the number of children with speech delays in ages 2 – 3 is on the rise.

Children with speech delay increase due to too much exposure to electronic devices and less interaction with loved ones

According to UNICEF, COVID-19 has had a serious impact on the health of children globally. In Vietnam, the epidemic has prevented children from going to school, limited communication and movement, and faced mental and psychological health problems such as stress, tension, and in which there is a risk of speech delay.

Ms. Lu Kim Cam Hac – teacher of preschool 15 district 11, Ho Chi Minh City said: Every year at the same age group of 2-3 year olds when entering school, they have memorized a lot of songs and poems. However, in the last 2 years (ages born in 2018, 2019), many children show signs of delay in speech, poorer language ability than the same age group 2 or 3 years ago.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong – Principal of Le Quy Don School – Hanoi said: The time off due to the recent COVID-19 epidemic affects the general development of children in all aspects, including language development. In contact with children, we found that some children had a phenomenon of language regress (previously, when they were at school, they spoke a lot, but after the break, they didn’t speak as much as before).

With the same assessment, Dr. Dinh Thac – Head of the Psychology Department of Children’s Hospital 1 (Ho Chi Minh City) said that recently, the department has received many children every day for examination. In 10 cases of children who come to the psychological consultation every day at Children’s Hospital 1, there are about 2-3 children with speech delay, mainly at the age of 2-3 years. Fortunately, 95% of these are children with simple speech delays, with no accompanying physical or psychological causes.

“Only a small percentage less than 5% of children with speech delay are related to diseases because children have abnormalities of cleft lip and cleft palate, children with abnormal mental symptoms, children with poor hearing, complications from meningitis, due to autism spectrum disorder…” – Mr. Thac said.

According to Dr. Dinh Thac, the increase in children with speech delay is not only in Vietnam but also the general situation in the world, especially after the COVID-19 epidemic. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 in 5 children under the age of 5 have speech delay. Research results of the group of Dr. Birken Toronto Children’s Hospital showed that the rate of speech delay increased by nearly 50% due to children watching and playing electronic devices such as phones, ipads, TVs…

According to Dr. Dinh Thac, 2-3 years old is a golden period for children to develop language. For children with simple speech delay, the cause of speech delay is more than 80% due to psychosocial factors. During the time off at home due to the COVID-19 epidemic, parents are busy, so they have little interaction and communication with their children, and at the same time, fear of disturbing children, they let their children have too much exposure to electronic devices. Too much exposure to electronic screens is a passive way of communication, which is one of the reasons why children are slow to speak and do not develop language. The American Pediatric Association has recommended that children over 2 years old should only be exposed to electronic devices, the duration of exposure is also limited, no more than 2 hours so as not to affect development. children’s language.

Signs to recognize and how to overcome speech delay in children

In order for children with speech delays to develop language, Dr. Dinh Thac said that the role of parents is the most important, because parents are the ones who have a lot of contact with their children. Parents need to spend time observing their children to see if they have normal development like other children or not so that they can take timely intervention measures.

Dr. Dinh Thac emphasized the important role of parents in implementing combined measures at home to increase children’s speaking ability. It is necessary to limit children’s exposure to electronic devices and increase their ability to interact and communicate with children.

“Many parents are very busy during the day, but in the evening, being able to spend time playing with their children with interactive games such as hide and seek, talk, kick a ball, play around… will keep children interested and turn on. speaking sound. In particular, should teach children to make eye contact as much as possible. This will help children gradually understand what adults say, in addition, what children want, parents should teach them to point out what they need, teach them to say those objects, this improves non-verbal communication. language, language disorder, speech delay in children is very effective.

According to MSc.BS. Master, parents also need to pay attention to nutrition to help children’s physical and mental development. Brain development is a continuous process of development from the fetus until the child is 2 years old and throughout the school period. In addition to providing all four groups of basic food ingredients such as carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins and minerals, children need to be supplemented with omega groups because their bodies cannot naturally synthesize this substance.

Explaining this, Mr. Thac said: Language is activated from a chain of neurotransmitters from the audiovisual organs and then transferred to the brain to record and imitate, sending out signals to the vocal organs to pop out. voice. Omega helps protect brain cells, helps brain cells develop optimally, helps the nervous system conduct convenient, receive information accurately and faster.

Thus, the brain plays a very important role in helping children to speak out and remember images more quickly, so the adequate addition of unsaturated fatty acids to the baby plays an important role, including: group of omega 3 fatty acids.

From the perspective of how nutrition affects children’s language development, Ms. Dr. Le Thi Hai – Former Director of Center for Nutritional Counseling, National Institute of Nutrition, President of the Nutrition Association Pediatrics said that omega 3 fatty acids – unsaturated fatty acids play a particularly important role in the brain.

“Children need to be provided with enough omega 3 fatty acids from the time they are in the womb and when they are born, making a very important contribution to brain development. I see, the most prominent advantage of plant-based omegas is that it has no odor, is not fishy, ​​does not cause vomiting, and is easy to drink for children. At the same time, plant-based omegas are easy to absorb, tolerable and especially safe for children because there is no risk of heavy metal contamination, lead, mercury like other omegas.”, BS. Hai emphasized.

According to experts, speech delay in children needs to be detected and intervened early because speech delay will lead to a number of other skills that are also limited, such as shyness, insecurity, and may affect the index. IQ, emotional quotient. This long-term situation will cause children to face the risk of hyperactivity, reduced attention, limited logical thinking, language, and even autism.