Correlation Study Of Delayed Language Development And Screen Exposure And Other Factors In Infants And Toddlers

Objective: To explore the correlation between delayed language development and screen exposure and family parenting environment in infants and toddlers,in order to provide a scientific evidence for the prevention of delayed language development and the rational use of screen media in infants and toddlers.Methods: Applied case-control study,51 children aged 0 to 36 months who were assessed as delayed language development by sign-significate relations method and only language developmental quotient abnormal in Gesell development schedules test were selected from October 2021 to August 2022 in the Children’s Rehabilitation Clinic of First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College as the case group.Taking age and gender as matching factor,53 children who had normal result of sign-significate relations method and received physical examination in the children’s preventive health care department as the control group at the same period.The parents of the two groups were asked a questionnaire,recording general information,family parenting environment,children’s screen exposure and caregivers’ screen management of children.Univariate and multivariate analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of delayed language development in infants and toddlers,and Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between screen exposure time and language development quotient.Results:(1)Univariate analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the general data between the case group and the control group(P>0.05).In the family parenting environment,the detection rates of father and mother with junior high school education and below in the case group were 43.14% and 41.18%,which were significantly higher than those in the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05);The daily screen watching time of parents in the case group were longer than control group,and there were different between the groups;51% of infants in the case group were mainly raised by their ancestors,which was higher than 20.75% of the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05);There were 21 cases with family history of language delay in the case group,which was significantly higher than 5 cases in the control group,P<0.001;There was no significant difference in the age of parents between the two groups.In children screen exposure,compared with the control group,the first screen exposure age(average 11.98 months)was younger and the average daily screen exposure time(average 3.29 hours)was longer in the case group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.001);Stratified analysis by average daily screen exposure time,screen time <1h/d and >2h/d were statistically significant between the two groups;There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of video content(P>0.05).In terms of screen management of children by caregivers,the parents accompanying rate(69.81%)in the control group was higher than that in the case group(19.61%)when children were exposed to screen,parents in the case group were more likely to use electronic products to soothe children when they were willful or in poor condition,in terms of limiting video time,parents in the case group performed less than those in the control group,the differences between groups were statistically significant(P<0.001).(2)The statistically significant factors in the univariate analysis were included in the multivariate Logistic regression analysis,and the results showed that the primary caregiver were grandparents(OR=9.509),have family history of language delay(OR=9.455),average daily screen exposure time more than two hours(OR=21.817),parents are not accompanied during children screen exposure(OR=12.583)and the mother’s education level of junior high school or below(OR=7.577)were independent risk factors for delayed language development in infants and toddlers,P<0.05.Older age of first screen exposure was a protective factor for delayed language development in infants and toddlers(OR=0.815,P<0.05).(3)Pearson correlation analysis showed that language development quotient was negatively correlated with average daily screen exposure time(r =-0.617,P<0.05).Conclusion: Screen exposure and family parenting environment are important factors affecting infants and toddlers language development.Strengthen the communication between parents and children,reduce infants and toddlers screen exposure as much as possible,to promote early language development of children.