Screening for Speech and Language Delay among Children Up to or Less than 3 years Seen in the Children Clinic of a Tertiary Hospital in Port Harcourt

Background: In the literature, there appears to be a lot of data on speech delay in children but most emanated from the western world, but little from sub-Sahara Africa especially Nigeria. This study therefore is to determine the prevalence and the risk factors of speech and language delay among children up to or less than 3years seen in our environment.

Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study carried out in the Paediatric outpatient clinic of the University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital within the period of June 2020 to September 2020. The Language Evaluation Scale Trivandrum (LEST 0-3) and Trivandrum Development Screening Chart (TDSC 0-3) are the tools used both to determine the speech and language delays and the developmental milestone in these children aged 0-3 years. Any child 3 years and below attending the clinic was included in the study; however children with apparent syndromes are excluded as well as children whose parents decline to give consent. IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics was employed in the analysis.

Results: The study comprised of 157 subjects with ages ranging from 2 months to 36 months. There is a significant relationship between hearing impairment and language/speech delay (p=0.002). There was a significant relationship between the various identified delays and a history of jaundice in the neonatal period. A prevalence of 15.3% for language/speech delay was obtained.

Conclusion: Language/speech delay is prevalent in our environment. Perinatal risk factors are significantly associated with these delays.