Communication helps newborns

An HCM City psychiatrist has underlined the importance of communicating to newborn babies for preventing speech disorders and other communication problems among children that have increased in recent times.

Many parents consider it unimportant to speak to newborn children, resulting in the slow development of a child’s language and communication abilities, said Dr Ngoc Thanh, psychiatrist at HCM City’s Children’s Hospital 1.

While children fail to understand the meanings of words uttered by parents, they are capable of feeling emotions of anger and love from the voice, the doctor said, urging parents to create necessary environment for children to develop their communication skills in the first four-years.

Says Thanh, who treats children with speaking disorders at the Children’s Hospital 1, “Developing communication skills is an important element during a child’s early period. Children who have physical, psychological or emotional deficiencies find it difficult to talk and communicate with others.”

According to Thanh, psychological damages suffered by parental divorce, family quarrels or deaths can affect a child’s ability to communicate clearly.

“Psychological damages such as divorce or quarrels can impede language development in children,” said Thanh, adding that even stopping children from crying could lead to speech difficulties in the future.

Physical punishments could engender violence in communication in later years, and children born in times of difficulties are prone to communication disorders, he said, advising parents to keep a gap of two-years between births, and mothers to focus on health during pregnancy.

Since a child develops his/her senses when about six-months old in the womb, he suggested parents to talk to new-born babies, sing lullabies or play symphonies to develop its communication abilities.

 

Category: Health