Abstract:

Objective To identify the influential factors in family on late talkers. Methods A cluster sampling survey was conducted on Shanghai healthy children aged 24 months to 35 months from 10 districts. Children with vocabularies less than 30 were identified as late talkers. Univariate analysis and Logistic stepwise regression analysis were performed to analyse the related environmental factors. Results There were 2 774 effective samples, and 115 late talkers (4.1%) were identified. Nine risk factors were found out from 26 environmental factors by univariate analysis, among which 5 were further identified by Logistic stepwise regression analysis as significant risk factors: urban life, education of father lower than middle school, using one language, male caregiver and lack of communication between child and caregiver. Conclusion Avoiding risk factors and providing favourable language environment may help to prevent language delay in children.

Key words: late talker, family environment, factor analysis