Document Type : Original Articles
Authors
- Masoomeh Salmani 1
- Masume Zareei 2, 3
- Marziyeh Maddah 3
- Mozhgan Asadi 2, 3
- Fatemeh Esmaili Moqadam 3
- Sepideh Seyed 4
- Mana Aminian 4
- Reyhaneh Farajianpour 4
1 Neuromuscular Rehabilitation Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran.
2 Department of Speech Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Jondi Shapour University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
3 Department of Speech therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran.
4 Department of speech therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation sciences, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran
Abstract
Background: Children’s language skills develop based on physical development and experience. During pandemics such as COVID-19, numerous restrictions were imposed on people’s lives. Such restrictions may have compromised children’s life experiences. This study investigated the rate of language impairment (LI) among 5-year-old children after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the language skills of 340 Persian-speaking children aged 5 years. All participants had no defects identified in preschool screening, had not been recommended for speech therapy or rehabilitation services, and represented all socioeconomic levels based on maternal education and fathers’ jobs. Language skills were assessed using the Farsi Language Development Test-3. A cutoff point of 1.25 standard deviations below the mean on the spoken language composite score was considered indicative of LI. The data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests.
Results: More than 20% of the children obtained standard scores below 6.25 on the relational vocabulary, sentence imitation, and word differentiation subtests. The children’s language age in these subtests was three years, corresponding to two years below their chronological age. Spoken language scores were significantly lower in boys, in children whose mothers had lower educational levels, and in those whose fathers were private employees compared with their counterparts (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: This study showed that the rate of language impairment (LI) among Persian monolingual individuals increased significantly at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. This increase may be a consequence of COVID-19-related circumstances or pandemic-related effects on family life.
Keywords
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