KOLKATA: Three-and-a-half-year-old Akshay was a bright and happy child, until his parents noticed something wrong last year, six months into the pandemic. A playschool student, aged two and a half years, still could not speak.
Her distraught parents asked for help from a mental health institute in the city, where it was discovered that the sudden separation from peers and elders in the family, due to lockdown, had inhibited his speech- and language-development skills.
with months of speech Treatment, sports and group therapy, the boy can talk as fluently as others of his age, and has a large group of friends with whom he interacts regularly.
Akshay’s case is not alone. Experts across the city said they have seen hundreds of such cases as there has been a significant drop in social interactions due to the pandemic.
“due to this covid The ban has been a complete lack of interaction with children of the same age and older persons,” said Meenu Budhia, psychotherapist and founder of Caring Minds, where Akshay did therapy. “Akshay, like many others, was cut off from sports groups, pre-schools and playgrounds where he could experience ‘normal’ activities. As a result they used only gestures to communicate. He would point to objects or pull on his parents’ clothes to get their attention.”
Psychotherapist J Ram explained that children’s social and language skills develop through interactions with peers and adults. “It has been seriously endangered since the start of the pandemic. Stranded at home, very young children have been forced to attend online classes, where interactions are virtual and do not help development as well speech Or let alone language skills, social skills. Parents have also become busy working from home and their interactions with children have reduced. As a result, basic skill development has been hampered,” Ram said.
Pediatrician Shantanu Ray said that speech delay is now common in children aged two to three years. “About a quarter of the children I’ve treated over the past year started talking late or needed speech therapy. As well, disorders such as autism and hyperactivity (lack of attention and concentration on tasks) developed The detection is being done late, as the children are not being seen continuously now. These will be traced first in the school,” Ray said.
Ram said that the best and only way to develop speaking and language skills is to talk to peers, which has been denied to children since March 2020. “We call this the ‘serve and volley’ mechanism, where you talk to a child and the child talks to you.”
Children need to return to group activities soon, felt Budhia. “In Akshay’s case, the group therapy sessions provided the necessary social environment with children of his age, while the speech therapy sessions gave him individual help. Play therapy sessions used toys, games, action stories, role-playing and interaction with a mental health specialist to create a safe space to explore and express their feelings non-verbally.
Under normal circumstances, these would have happened naturally without assistance.
Experts see some light at the end of the tunnel, with schools set to reopen on 16 November. “But it will be for classes IX to XII. People between the ages of three and six need to go to more school not only to study but perhaps to acquire language and social skills. Children need a stimulating environment to learn social, language and adaptive skills. This lost time cannot be recovered,” said Ram.
Her distraught parents asked for help from a mental health institute in the city, where it was discovered that the sudden separation from peers and elders in the family, due to lockdown, had inhibited his speech- and language-development skills.
with months of speech Treatment, sports and group therapy, the boy can talk as fluently as others of his age, and has a large group of friends with whom he interacts regularly.
Akshay’s case is not alone. Experts across the city said they have seen hundreds of such cases as there has been a significant drop in social interactions due to the pandemic.
“due to this covid The ban has been a complete lack of interaction with children of the same age and older persons,” said Meenu Budhia, psychotherapist and founder of Caring Minds, where Akshay did therapy. “Akshay, like many others, was cut off from sports groups, pre-schools and playgrounds where he could experience ‘normal’ activities. As a result they used only gestures to communicate. He would point to objects or pull on his parents’ clothes to get their attention.”
Psychotherapist J Ram explained that children’s social and language skills develop through interactions with peers and adults. “It has been seriously endangered since the start of the pandemic. Stranded at home, very young children have been forced to attend online classes, where interactions are virtual and do not help development as well speech Or let alone language skills, social skills. Parents have also become busy working from home and their interactions with children have reduced. As a result, basic skill development has been hampered,” Ram said.
Pediatrician Shantanu Ray said that speech delay is now common in children aged two to three years. “About a quarter of the children I’ve treated over the past year started talking late or needed speech therapy. As well, disorders such as autism and hyperactivity (lack of attention and concentration on tasks) developed The detection is being done late, as the children are not being seen continuously now. These will be traced first in the school,” Ray said.
Ram said that the best and only way to develop speaking and language skills is to talk to peers, which has been denied to children since March 2020. “We call this the ‘serve and volley’ mechanism, where you talk to a child and the child talks to you.”
Children need to return to group activities soon, felt Budhia. “In Akshay’s case, the group therapy sessions provided the necessary social environment with children of his age, while the speech therapy sessions gave him individual help. Play therapy sessions used toys, games, action stories, role-playing and interaction with a mental health specialist to create a safe space to explore and express their feelings non-verbally.
Under normal circumstances, these would have happened naturally without assistance.
Experts see some light at the end of the tunnel, with schools set to reopen on 16 November. “But it will be for classes IX to XII. People between the ages of three and six need to go to more school not only to study but perhaps to acquire language and social skills. Children need a stimulating environment to learn social, language and adaptive skills. This lost time cannot be recovered,” said Ram.
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