Srinagar: Excessive screen time brought on by lack of ’interaction’ between working parents and their kids at home has emerged as a significant contributing factor to ‘speech impairments’ in children between 2 to 4 years of age.
Children below four years of age, according to speech therapists, also develop neurological conditions including ‘fragmented concentration and sleep disturbance’ (insomnia) in addition to speech delay.
The main cause of children’s speech delay problems, according to health experts, is parents’ hectic work schedules or other commitments that prevent them from interacting with their children at home.
The District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) of the Government G.B. Pant Hospital in Srinagar sees six to seven children every day with speech delay issues brought on by their excessive interactions with mobile phones.
“Excessive screen time has become an epidemic in Kashmir, hindering children’s early development and leading to a host of health problems. Since the parent-child connection is crucial to a child’s physical and mental development, we advise parents to spend as much time with their children at home,” Dr. Abdul Rashid Parra, Medical Superintendent of the District Early Intervention Centre, Srinagar, told ‘Kashmir Images’.
Since addiction to handheld mobile phones is on the rise, excessive screen time, he claimed, causes children in Kashmir to lose their communication skills.
“When kids act out, whether at home, at restaurants, or at family gatherings, parents willfully hand them cell phones to distract them. One to three years is the critical period for children’s speech development, which is severely hindered as a result of their excessive reliance on playing with mobile phones,” he added.
The issue of speech delay in children grew worse during COVID-19 pandemic, according to a speech therapist at the DEIC Srinagar, as the majority of the people at home were engrossed in their mobile phones.
“Among the detrimental effects of excessive screen time on social and emotional development include increased risk of obesity, sleep disorders, and mental health conditions including anxiety and depression,” she said, adding, that a child’s ability to talk may be lost for the rest of life if her/his parents do not interact with him/her and encourage his/her early physical and mental growth.
She said that when parents are preoccupied with their work and other responsibilities, their children get alienated due to a lack of connection with them and only pay attention to what is displayed on their mobile phones.
“Using mobile devices is significantly linked to expressive speech delay, a condition in which kids may grasp and comprehend but are unable to express themselves. Children who spend more than 30 minutes on screens are 49 percent more likely to experience expressive speech delays,” she added.
At DEIC, every day we encounter six to seven kids with speech delay disorders on average. Excessive mobile phone use may also negatively impact a child’s social-emotional development and parent-child connections,” she claimed.
