Language Delay in Children: How to Prevent It

From pregnancy, you can prevent your child from having speech delay.

If you're trying to conceive, are a mother, grandmother, or healthcare professional, we want to share this vital information to ensure the proper cognitive and emotional development of your children.

This information is a summary of one of the presentations at the most recent MAPS (Medical Academy of Pediatrics & Special Needs) 2024 conference, attended by NutriWhite Ambassador Dr. Andrés Marcano, who spent three days updating himself on the latest approaches to autism spectrum disorder.

One of the most developed areas was the link between nutritional deficiencies and communication issues such as delay, regression in speech, or lack of speech.

In the presentation by Vicki Kobliner MS RDN, the focus was on perinatal influences—that is, the influences on the mother before and during pregnancy, as well as in the first year of life. She specifically highlighted that low vitamin intake and perceived stress during pregnancy were associated with coexisting speech and behavioral difficulties. (1)

Six essential nutrients for speech:

Folate (Not folic acid, but folinic acid or 5-MTHF):

Prenatal supplementation with active folate, Vitamin B9, had a positive impact on children's neurological development outcomes, including better intellectual development and a reduced risk of autism traits, ADHD, and behavioral and speech problems.

Vitamin B9 can be naturally found in vegetables such as asparagus, leafy greens like chard, kale, collard greens, spinach, as well as in certain legumes and seeds, and also in liver and other organ meats. In our experience, most people do not consume enough sources of active folate and need to take an additional supplement, even if they are not pregnant women.

Moreover, depending on your genetics, your ability to process that folate and convert it into its active form for the body might be much lower—sometimes functioning at only 30% instead of 100%. If you want to learn more, read about the MTHFR gene.

Folate is not only essential to prevent conditions like spina bifida, scoliosis, or cleft lip, but it has also been shown that high doses of folate at the beginning of pregnancy may be associated with greater vocabulary development, communication skills, and verbal comprehension at 18 months of age. (2)

Vitamin B12‍

Supplementation with B12 has been documented to improve speech and language in children with ASD. (3)
Together with B9, B12 plays a role in the metabolism necessary for the formation of every cell in the human body; for example, both are essential for DNA replication and division.

B12 comes in various forms—the most common (and least effective) is cyanocobalamin, but in our experience, this form of B12 often fails to correct nutritional deficiencies. Many people also genetically do not tolerate it well and need more active forms such as: hydroxocobalamin, methylcobalamin, and adenosylcobalamin.

Children of women who consumed less than 10% of the recommended B12 intake had a higher risk of poor vocabulary at 24 months, reduced ability to combine words at 38 months, poor speech intelligibility at age 6, poor math comprehension in fourth grade and again at ages 8–9 and 10–11, and poor performance on national math exams at age 13. (4)

In contrast, children of mothers who received oral vitamin B12 supplements had significantly higher scores in expressive language compared to children of mothers who received a placebo. (5)

Vitamin D

There is a risk that women with vitamin D insufficiency (<46 nmol/L) during pregnancy may have a child with clinically significant language difficulties, compared to women with vitamin D levels >70 nmol/L. (6)

Vitamin D is known as the "Sunshine Vitamin" because sunlight enables our bodies to convert its inactive form found in some foods into its active form. Undoubtedly the most popular vitamin in recent years—especially in the post-COVID world—vitamin D's importance for a proper immune response is now widely recognized.

For many reasons, most women experience vitamin D deficiency, especially after age 35. Measuring vitamin D levels is a blood test we consider as important as checking blood glucose or cholesterol levels.

Vitamin D, in addition to allowing proper calcium absorption (hence its association with a lower risk of osteoporosis), is an immunomodulator, meaning it helps reduce the body’s inflammatory response.

Most people taking a vitamin D supplement typically take 1,000 IU or 2,000 IU daily. However, that may not be enough in many cases—some individuals may require up to 10,000 IU/day to maintain optimal blood levels.

Additionally, it’s important to know that for a vitamin D supplement to be truly effective, it must be combined with vitamin K to improve absorption. That is the formulation we recommend to our clients.

Vitamin A y E

Higher serum concentrations of antioxidant vitamins (vitamins A and E) in maternal blood and in umbilical cord blood after birth have been positively associated with children's language and behavioral development in the first two years of life. (7)

Vitamins A and E are fat-soluble vitamins, meaning they need to be transported in fat-based mediums to be properly absorbed. They belong to the same family of fat-soluble vitamins as D and K.

Vitamin A might not sound as familiar, but you may have heard the word “beta-carotene” or been told since childhood that “carrots are good for your eyesight.” This is because yellow-orange colored vegetables are often rich in beta-carotene, which is the inactive form. The body converts it into retinol, the active form, which can be found in animal sources like cod liver oil. Retinol is used by the retina to generate the automatic response chain we interpret as “seeing”—in other words, if you can read, it’s because your body is using vitamin A.

Vitamin E is one of the most well-known antioxidants, which is why it’s commonly found in “anti-aging” products or supplements. Together with vitamin C and selenium, it captures free radicals or pro-oxidants and converts them into compounds that can be eliminated, thus preventing cellular damage.

Vitamin E is found in sources of healthy fats such as avocados and nuts.

Vitamin B1:

Thiamine is increasingly being identified as a potential essential nutrient for language development in children. (8)

For this reason, thiamine deficiency during childhood is now being linked to negative effects on language development.

Thiamine, or vitamin B1, acts as a cofactor or mediator in metabolic reactions related to energy production. In other words, for cells to function, they need not only glucose or fats but also B1 to drive the energy cycle.

Although thiamine deficiency is often associated with alcohol abuse, it is now increasingly recognized that it can also occur during pregnancy and breastfeeding, especially in women with gestational diabetes.

For example, infants fed soy-based formula due to allergy or intolerance to cow's milk-based formulas have been found to be at higher risk of thiamine deficiency.

‍Final message

Para lograr obtener y Reponer de manera óptima estos nutrientes, ¡Lo primero es sanar el intestino para absorberlos correctamente! Apoyarte con suplementación adecuada tú como mamá o futura mamá, podemos apoyarte en la búsqueda de las mejores marcas y a personalizar tu Protocolo 3R.

‍

REFERENCES:‍

1. D'Souza S, Crawford CN, Buckley J, Underwood L, Peterson ER, Bird A, Morton SMB, Waldie KE. Determinantes prenatales del retraso en el habla y el comportamiento en la primera infancia dificultades. Desarrollo del comportamiento infantil. 2019 noviembre; 57: 101388. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101388.

2.Hanxiao Chen, Lang Qin, Rui Gao, Xiaolei Jin, Kemin Cheng, Sirui Zhang, Xiao Hu, Wenming Xu y Hongjing Wang (2023) Efectos en el desarrollo neurológico de la suplementación materna con ácido fólico: una revisión sistemática y un metanálisis, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 63:19, 3771-3787.

3.Rossignol, Daniel A., and Richard E. Frye. "The effectiveness of cobalamin (B12) treatment for autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Journal of personalized medicine 11.8 (2021): 784.

4.Golding J, Gregory S, Clark R, Iles-Caven Y, Ellis G, Taylor CM, Hibbeln J. Maternal prenatal vitamin B12 intake is associated with speech development and mathematical abilities in childhood. Nutrition Research. 2021 Feb 1;86:68-78.

5.Thomas, Susan, et al. "Effect of maternal vitamin B12 supplementation on cognitive outcomes in south indian children: a randomized controlled clinical trial." Maternal and child health journal 23 (2019): 155-163.

6.Whitehouse, Andrew JO, et al. "Maternal serum vitamin D levels during pregnancy and offspring neurocognitive development." Pediatrics 129.3 (2012): 485-493.

7.Chen, Ke, et al. "Estado de vitaminas antioxidantes durante el embarazo en relación con el desarrollo cognitivo en los dos primeros años de vida". Desarrollo humano temprano 85.7 (2009): 421-427.

8.Fattal-Valevski A, Azouri-Fattal I, Greenstein YJ, Guindy M, Blau A, Zelnik N. Delayed language development due to infantile thiamine deficiency. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2009 Aug;51(8):629-34. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2008.03161.x. Epub 2009 Jan 26. PMID: 19191836.