The number of children who are slow to speak after the Covid-19 pandemic has increased

The cause of the increase in speech delay in children

According to UNICEF, Covid-19 has had a serious impact on the health of children around the world. 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 Kindergarten 15, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City), said that in previous years, children aged 2-3 years old when entering school had memorized a lot of songs and poems. However, in the past 2 years, many children (born in 2018 and 2019) have shown signs of delay in speech and language ability, which is worse than that of the same age group 2 or 3 years ago.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong (Principal of Le Quy Don School, Hanoi) also informed that the recent separation period has affected the general development of children in all aspects, including language development. “In contact with children, we found that some children have a phenomenon of language regress (previously, when they were at school, they spoke a lot, but after the break, they didn’t talk as much as before)”, Ms. Huong said. .

Sharing the same assessment, Dr. Dinh Thac – Head of the Psychology Department of Children’s Hospital 1 (HCMC) said that recently, every day, the hospital’s Psychology Department receives many children for examination. In 10 cases of children going to psychological counseling every day, there are about 2-3 children with speech delay, mainly at the age of 2-3 years. 95% of these are children with simple speech delay, 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…”, Ths.BS Thac said.

According to Ths.BS Dinh Thac, the increase in children with speech delay is not only in Vietnam but also the general situation in the world after the Covid-19 epidemic. The male doctor said that 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 children have too much contact with electronic devices.

According to Ths.BS Thac, a lot of 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, and the duration of exposure should not exceed 2 hours so as not to affect language development.

Signs to recognize and how to overcome speech delay in children

In order for children with speech delay to develop language, MSc 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.

Parents need to limit their children’s exposure to electronic devices and increase their ability to interact and communicate with children.

“Even though the day is busy, in the evening parents can spend time playing with their children with interactive games such as hide-and-seek, talking, soccer, etc., which will make children excited and can turn on spoken sounds. 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 show what they need, and teach them to say those objects. This improves non-verbal communication, language disorders, and speech delay in children very effectively.

According to MSc. Thac, parents also need to pay attention to the nutrition that helps the child’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 a full range of 4 groups of basic food ingredients such as: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibers and vitamins, children need to be supplemented with omega groups because their bodies cannot synthesize them themselves. This substance.

From the perspective of how nutrition affects children’s language development, Ms. Dr. Le Thi Hai – Former director of the Center for Nutrition Examination and Counseling, National Institute of Nutrition, said that fatty acids group Omega 3 – unsaturated fatty acids play a particularly important role in the brain.

“Children need an adequate supply of omega 3 fatty acids right from the time they are in the womb and when they are born. I see, the most outstanding advantage of plant-based omegas is that it has no smell, is not fishy, ​​does not cause vomiting, and is easy to drink for children,” said Dr. Hai.

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.

Le An