"We all know the story of wolf children. Even if a child is taken to the wolf's nest after birth, even if he returns to the society at the age of seven or eight, he still can't speak because there is no stimulation of the language environment. Language ability is developed in the early postnatal period under the stimulation of sufficient language environment
This is the content of an open letter from Qian Youqiong to her parents through Chengdu Business Daily in November 2013. At that time, she had just noticed that more and more children were unable to speak, and the reason was not that their hearing or intelligence was abnormal, but that parents were addicted to mobile phones and neglected to communicate with their children.
Two and a half years later, this phenomenon has not abated, but has soared. Qian Youqiong the day before yesterday's outpatient, met three or four such children who can't speak.
She told reporters that in 2013, she had an average of three or four such cases a week; by this year, she had three or four of these cases in almost every 50 patients she received. And 50 patients, only the number of patients she visited in a day.
"I think this situation will continue to increase," says Qian Youqiong. With the rapid progress of smart phones and smart electronic devices, people are more dependent on mobile phones and spend more time on mobile phones. In this way, parents who neglect to accompany their children effectively will be more, and the proportion of such patients in outpatient service will also be higher.
The doctor asked the parents if they were playing too hard with their mobile phones
On April 18, Bobo, a 4-year-old boy, was taken by his parents to Qian Youqiong's clinic of the Second Affiliated Hospital of West China for medical treatment. The parents told Qian Youqiong that Bobo hardly spoke. Up to now, she could only call her mother, not even her father, let alone other words.
After checking every part of Bobo, and testing intelligence, hearing and other indicators, after excluding all other factors that easily lead to not speaking, Qian Youqiong concluded that Bobo is a language development disorder caused by lack of language stimulation.
"Do you play too hard with your mobile phones and don't usually talk to dolls?" Qian asked, Bobo's parents blushed and looked at each other with a smile of embarrassment.
"Sure enough, they are another couple who spend more time playing mobile phones than watching their children." Qian Youqiong sighs in her heart. She had to repeat to each other over and over again: "when you get home, turn off your mobile phone, don't play anything, just play with your child, talk to your child more, and teach him to read Tang Poetry & hellip; & hellip;"
Qian Youqiong, who has been a doctor in Pediatrics for 61 years, told reporters that language is a special high-level neural activity of human beings, and the development of language is a sign of children's overall development. Usually, children in 10 months old or so, can open their mouth to call 'father, mother'. For children around 3 years old, their language ability should reach the level of simple conversation with adults. It's not normal for 3-year-old people to be unable to complete other languages besides calling people.
According to her, the factors affecting children's language ability are usually mental retardation, hearing loss, autism and so on. But if these factors are excluded, it may be language development disorders.
The most realistic reason for language development disorder is that children receive too little language stimulation. Qian Youqiong said that children need language stimulation from the very beginning. When the children can speak, they should have more language stimulation and communication. Children are very sensitive to language. If children do not have healthy and normal language development during this period, it is likely to bring trouble to their future growth.
Of course, the relationship between playing mobile phones and children's language development is indirect. According to Qian Youqiong's more than 60 years of medical experience, there may not be no children with language retardation in the age of no humble people. However, most of them appeared in rural areas before. At that time, young couples in rural areas had to go out to work, and the old people with children had to do farm work. Therefore, the language development of many rural children was slower than that of urban children.
But now it is different. Qian Youqiong roughly estimated that among her patients, children in the city are at least twice as many as those in the countryside. "When there is no mobile phone, parents go home around their children," says Qian Youqiong. After mobile phones become more and more intelligent, the time parents devote to mobile phones is amazing.
"I think it's a social disease more than a disease," she says, adding that it can't be solved by drugs, but by heart. However, although Qian Youqiong asked the children to come back to see them three months later, no such children ever came to her for further consultation. She thought positively, perhaps because the parents corrected the cause of the disease, the children have recovered.