Toddlers have begun going back to school after many months of staying at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, doctors have noticed an increase in speech delay among toddlers. 

According to UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund), Covid-19 has had a serious impact on the health of children all over the globe. In Vietnam, because of the pandemic and lockdowns, children could not go to school, which restricted communications and movement. They are facing problems in mental health, such as stress, tension and speech delay.

Lu Kim Cam Hac, a preschool teacher in district 11, in HCM City, said in previous years, when children 2-3 years old began school, they knew many songs and poems. But in the last two years, many children (born in 2018 and 2019) have shown signs of speed delay and worse language capability. 

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, principal at Le Quy Don School in Hanoi, said that the lockdown time had an adverse impact on the general growth of children, including language development.

“When communicating with children, we found language regression in some of them, which means that they could speak well at school before the pandemic, but their language skills worsened after a period of staying at home,” Huong said.

Dinh Thac, Head of Psychology Department of Children's Hospital 1 in HCM City, said the department receives a high number of children every day. Two or three out of every 10 children who come to receive psychological consultancy show signs of speech delay, mostly children aged 2-3. Ninety-five percent of them are children with pure speech delay, with no physical or psychological reasons. 

“Only a small number, less than 5 percent, of children with speech delay have relation to diseases, such as cleft lip and palate, or abnormal mental symptoms and poor hearing which are complications of diseases related to the brain membrane and to autism,” he said.

Thac said the increase in number of children with speech delay has been seen in other countries. The ages of 2-3 are the golden time for children to develop language skills. For children with pure speech delay, 80 percent of the reasons are related to psychosocial factors. Children cannot go to school, and their parents don’t spend time communicating with their children, leaving their children with electronic devices.

According to Thac, exposure to electronic device’s screens is passive communication, which is one of the reasons behind children’s speech delay and the underdevelopment of language. 

The American Pediatric Association recommends that children should only be exposed to electronic devices when they are two years old or older, and the exposure time should not be more than two hours, or this will affect language development.

To help children with speech delay to develop language skills, Thac said parents play the most important role because they are the ones communicating with children the most. Parents need to spend time observing their children to see if they have normal development so as to take  intervention measures if necessary.

The doctor says that parents need to pay attention to nutrition  to help children develop physically and mentally. Brain development lasts throughout the school period.

In addition to carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibers and vitamins, children need omega 3 because their bodies cannot synthesize the substance themselves. 

Le Thi Hai, former Director of the Center for Nutritional Counseling under the National Institute of Nutrition, confirmed that Omega 3 plays a particularly important role in brain development.

“Children need an adequate supply of omega 3 fatty acids right from the time they are in the womb and when they are born. The most outstanding advantage of plant-based omegas is that it has no smell, is not fishy, and is easy to drink," said Hai.

According to experts, speech delay in children needs to be detected early because it may affect the development of other skills.

Children may become shy and lose self-confidence, and their IQ and emotional quotient will also be affected. If the situation lasts a long time, it may lead to hyperactivity, attention reduction, limited logical thinking, and even autism.

Ngoc Trang