The Interaction of Social, Physical and Nutritive Factors in Triggering Early Developmental Language Delay in a Sample of Egyptian Children

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Language acquisition and child development during the early years of life depend on multiple interacting factors.AIM:To explore potential factors that can impact language development in 2 groups of Egyptian children, one with normal language development and the second with delayed development. Also, to explore to what extent can the involvement of impaired motor development potentiate the risk of developmental language delay.METHODS:This cross-sectional case-control study involved Egyptian children belonging to the middle socioeconomic class between 18 and 36 months of age. Children were classified according to their performance on language domain of Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) into two groups, infants with the average or above score (control group) and those having below-average scores (cases). Motor development was assessed on the same scale. Factors affecting language development were tested, including socio-demographic, obstetric, and maternal medical factors in addition to Infant Feeding Practices.RESULTS:The independent factors lowering the language scores were early introduction of complementary food, low family income, history of delivery problems, pregnancy-related diseases of the mother, and maternal education. Impaired motor development appears as a further highly significant risk factor to the previously mentioned factorsCONCLUSION:In Egyptian children, delayed language development is severely affected by the interaction of medical, social and nutritional factors. Providing adequate maternal health care during pregnancy and childbirth, regular developmental monitoring at each child visit, and screening for such risk factors, can reduce size of the problem and promote child’s social and psychological development.

Stunting and its Determinants among Governmental Primary School Children in Egypt: A School-based Cross-sectional Study

“…Skipping breakfast and having <3 meals per day carried more than 4 times the risk of being stunted than those who had breakfast and their number of meals were more than three per day. There are many Egyptian studies supporting these findings and at the same time suggesting that school feeding programs and breakfast resulted in improvements in children's health and nutrition when provided for a long period [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11].…”

“…Nutritional status is a strong determinant of health, neurocognitive performance, and school achievement of school-aged children [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]. In addition to this, childhood undernutrition can impact adults' salaries and families' incomes [23].…”

“…Egypt is on course to meet the global targets of under-five stunting which is less than that of developing countries by 25% [29]. Such a target could not be achieved without educating mothers about the role of breastfeeding during the first 2 years of life in improving the health and development of infants [8], [9], [10], [11]. Meanwhile, to achieve SDG for decreasing stunting in Egypt, community-based programs for empowering women is indicated as it proved to be successful for rural communities in Egypt for controlling both communicable and non-communicable diseases and for enhancing progress toward a better quality of life [30], [31], [32], [33].…”

“…The fact that higher levels of education for women in developing countries translate into better nutrition for offspring may be due to that more schooling leads to greater exposure to nutrition principles. It was also hypothesized that more educated women in developing countries are more receptive or have a higher ability to understand information about child care and nutrition [8], [42], [43], [44] and are more able to maximize utilization of existing family and community resources for available governmental primary health care services [45], [46]. Moreover, the linkage between exclusive breastfeeding with higher levels of maternal education was documented among studies targeted infants and preschool children from developing countries [8], [9], [10], [11], [43].…”

“…The physical growth and nutritional status of school-aged children are considered to be of utmost significance as it presents the general health status of the whole community. Good nutrition is also a determinant of healthy growth of mind and body in all stages of life, especially in the early stages of life [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11].…”