Children with delayed speech: Risks from watching too much phone, learning many languages

According to experts, watching a lot of electronic devices, having little social interaction, learning multiple languages, etc. are risk factors that cause children to have slow language development.

Dr. Vu Son Tung, Institute of Mental Health, shares about delayed language development in children - Photo: D.LIEU

Number of children with delayed speech increases, late examination

According to Dr. Vu Son Tung - Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Institute of Mental Health, Bach Mai Hospital, in recent years, especially after COVID-19 (2020), the rate of children with speech delay coming to the hospital for examination has increased due to many reasons.

It is worth mentioning that most children arrive later than the golden period (from 0-3 years old).

Doctor Do Thuy Dung, Institute of Mental Health, Bach Mai Hospital, shared that she had just received treatment for a 4-year-old child diagnosed with a language disorder.

According to the mother, because the father works far away and the mother works as a factory worker, leaving in the morning and returning in the evening, the children mainly stay with their grandparents.

Every day, the baby is often let by grandparents watch TV and phone from an early age. Every time he sits down to play, eats, or cries… his grandparents let him watch.

At the age of 2, the child could only say a few single words, not yet compound words. Up to now, although he is 4 years old, sometimes he does not say anything for a long time, has a limited vocabulary, does not actively speak when playing in a group of neighborhood friends, rarely tells stories, rarely brags or tells his mother...

Causes of delayed speech in children

According to Dr. Vu Son Tung, normally a child is considered to be slow to speak when, by the age of 2, he or she still cannot say about 50 single words or compound words (2-word sentences).

According to statistics, children aged 2-7 years old have a rate of 2.3-19% of slow-speaking children. In addition, about 2.1-11.4% of preschool children in the world have slow-speaking children, children aged 18-35 months account for nearly 15%. Boys have a rate of 3-4 times higher than girls.

Of these, 25-30% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have delayed language development.

According to Dr. Tung, there are many causes of delayed speech in children such as: anatomical and sensory abnormalities: speech organs (cleft lip, cleft palate, tongue), brain areas controlling pronunciation, oral movements, and hearing impairment.

Perinatal risk factors leading to premature hearing loss, hypoxia, neonatal jaundice... damage to the central nervous system.

In addition, the risk factor that makes children more likely to have delayed language development is when there is a family history of delayed speech. In which, children whose parents or siblings have language problems are 2-3 times more likely to have delayed speech than children from normal families.

Using TV and phone for more than 2 hours in children aged 1-3 years increases the risk of delayed speech. The impact of exposure to multiple languages ​​on delayed speech is 22% while exposure to one language is 8%.

Early intervention for children

According to Dr. Tung, early intervention, especially in children aged 0-3, can help improve and achieve early milestones in language development and communication skills, while reducing problems related to emotions, cognition, and social skills.

Interventions may include speech therapy, educational support programs, and activities that encourage communication. This therapy may be delivered by speech and language therapists and other clinicians.

Children can begin to show signs of language delay as early as 18 months of age and with early intervention, speech and communication skills can improve by up to 50% within the first year of intervention.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tre-cham-noi-nguy-co-do-xem-nhieu-dien-thoai-hoc-nhieu-thu-tieng-20250217145615513.htm