Delayed Language Development Post-CoVID-19
Unmasking the Screen-Time Connection
Author : Mahasri Das
Published : 2024, January 5 (6 min read)
2020
A year which focused the most on one specific setback. The dreaded CoVID-19
To contain it, countries across the world were forced to enforce lock-downs. Terms like "quarantine” and “vaccine” became common topics of concern.
In the midst of all this, there was additionally one major concerning issue that silently became more prominent over that year and further split over into the years to come. What was the issue?
“DELAYED SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT”
But what actually happened? Why the sudden rise in speech and language developmental delay? Was there a possibility that it could have been avoided?
This lockdown across the year had two major side effects for many:
Side-effects of Social Distance: Social distancing affects communication in various ways. It reduces the frequency of face-to-face interactions, leading to a decrease in the quality of interpersonal communication.
Side-effects of Virtual Distance: A psychological and emotional feeling of detachment from others. It can develop slowly and unconsciously when people spend more time interacting with screens instead of each other.
From experience, we can all agree that social distancing was not something we chose to do. It was rather something we had to do whether we liked it or not. We can also agree that here, social distancing was linked to physical proximity only.
But did it mean we were totally cut off from everyone totally? At home, we had the chance to reconnect with our family members. We had gadgets like mobiles and computers to reconnect with those whom we couldn’t meet up with. In spite of so many options, what went wrong?
Perhaps, the biggest error in this case would wrong utilization of one’s time; to be more specific, the utilization of screen time among young children. Before we consider what went wrong, we need to understand what can lead to age-appropriate language development.
It’s common knowledge that “age-appropriate language development” is a result of specific types of activities. Which of these activities can be used in lock-down? The best were obviously those that required face-to-face interactions and focused on spontaneous conversation. It could be something as simple as a mealtime family discussion. It may involve family games like “Guess Who?” or “I Spy” The choices are endless.
But what about screen time? Is there something like correct vs wrong utilization? One obvious example of correct utilization is virtual social interactions like a simple video call with our favourite relative. But is that it? Or are there other options?
There are few instances where screen time would have been fine in such a lock-down. These could involve games which potentially allowed our family member(s) to participate. It could, for example, be a game like LUDO or a word-guessing name. It could involve seeing and discussing movies together.
But there is one classification of screen time which to enable language development had been best avoided. It involves
Listening to/seeing media or interacting with games involving negative content
Listening to media like nursery rhymes repeatedly till the content becomes redundant
Had the child been not allowed to see this content, there would be a reduced chance of issues in language distance.
This type of screen time became the main culprit for ‘virtual distancing,’ and subsequently language delay as it involved no interaction without other people.
It is also important to remember that not only quality the extent to which screen-time is utilized is directly proportionate to the amount of language delay. There are clear cut age-wise guidelines for the same.
Any screen time duration exceeding the mandated time puts a child at genuine risk for language delay. During the lockdown, the screen time given clearly exceeded the set guidelines. Screen time was even considered as the most preferable leisure activity for some children. In other instances, the screen time was increased by the parental figure itself in order to finish daily household chores. Hence, due to multiple such reasons, children gradually got more used to preferring screen time as a primary source of entertainment.
Final Thoughts
One of the major underlying reasons behind the rise in language delay during the lockdown is screen time. How and to what extent it could be utilized was, unfortunately, something which was totally under our control. As an end result, there was an overall noticeable rise in delay in language development.