Dr. Seyram Wordui

Parents who want to help their children communicate well should rather stimulate them to talk as often as possible than resorting to making them watch cartoons.

This advice comes at a time when many parents are of the conviction that, watching cartoons help children to learn to talk fast which has encouraged many to buy electronic devices such as television sets, tablets and cell phones for their children to facilitate that.

But, a Paediatrician and Chief Executive Officer of Babychildandco,  Dr. SeyramWordui, in an interview with The Spectator on Monday said parents should interact more with their children than rely on electronic devices as she had observed.

She said human interaction should not replace cartoons but efforts should be made by parents and guardians to engage the children in communication even after watching the cartoons. 

 Dr. Wordui whose organisation offers parenting guidance and support to parents online said “Watching cartoons does not help children to talk fast especially when there is no conversation to stimulate a discussion”.

She said parents who had observed that their children had not met communication milestones as should be the case per their ages, should seek professional help. 

She added that children developed differently and milestones could be considered only a guide.

The Chief Executive Officer again advised parents and guardians to be vigilant and look out for what might be thought to be wrong with their children and wards but not compare their children with others’.

Dr. Wordui said that every baby should be allowed up to a period of three months to meet expected speech and language milestones.

She said after this, parents who were not satisfied with the baby’s development should seek professional help because it was possible to suspect autism in a baby as young as six months or earlier.

From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Tema.