Background: This study aimed to assess the language delay in 9 month to 3 years old children with ITS and pre ITS at the time of diagnosis and the effect of treatment on speech and language development after 6 months to one year. Methodology: The study was conducted as a prospective longitudinal observational study on children of age 9 month to 3 year with diagnosis of ITS and PRE ITS admitted in Department of Pediatrics, Kamla Nehru Hospital and Hamidia Hospital Bhopal during the study period of 21 months. All the children were assessed for presence of development delay according to development quotient and assessment of language delay was done using Language Evaluation Scale Trivandrum (LEST 0-3 years). Results: Mean age of children enrolled in our study was 12.91±4.66 months and males slightly outnumbered females in our study with male: female ratio of 1.15:1 in children with preITS as well as ITS. At baseline, i.e. before initiating treatment, no language delay was noted in only 5 (5.8%) cases, whereas majority of children had 2 item delay (53.5%), followed by 23.3% and 17.4% children with 3 items and 1 item delay respectively. At baseline 5 patients had no delay whereas at final follow up 6 of patients had no delay. The LEST positive at baseline were observed in 76.7% cases which at follow up was documented in significantly lower proportions of children with preITS and ITS (57%; p<0.05). After recovery from illness, the improvement was observed in 42 out of 86 children. The therapy was constituted of diet, medication, stimulation and on multivariate analysis, injection trineurosol and calorie addition with injection trineurosol were found to be independent factors associated with recovery. Conclusions: ITS and PreITS are associated with language delay in as high as 76.7% cases. Early identification and management of ITS and preITS may improve the language development in such children. Further studies are warranted to explore the speech and language delay in children with ITS and preITS.

Background: This study aimed to assess the language delay in 9 month to 3 years old children with ITS and pre ITS at the time of diagnosis and the effect of treatment on speech and language development after 6 months to one year. Methodology: The study was conducted as a prospective longitudinal observational study on children of age 9 month to 3 year with diagnosis of ITS and PRE ITS admitted in Department of Pediatrics, Kamla Nehru Hospital and Hamidia Hospital Bhopal during the study period of 21 months. All the children were assessed for presence of development delay according to development quotient and assessment of language delay was done using Language Evaluation Scale Trivandrum (LEST 0-3 years). Results: Mean age of children enrolled in our study was 12.91±4.66 months and males slightly outnumbered females in our study with male: female ratio of 1.15:1 in children with preITS as well as ITS. At baseline, i.e. before initiating treatment, no language delay was noted in only 5 (5.8%) cases, whereas majority of children had 2 item delay (53.5%), followed by 23.3% and 17.4% children with 3 items and 1 item delay respectively. At baseline 5 patients had no delay whereas at final follow up 6 of patients had no delay. The LEST positive at baseline were observed in 76.7% cases which at follow up was documented in significantly lower proportions of children with preITS and ITS (57%; p<0.05). After recovery from illness, the improvement was observed in 42 out of 86 children. The therapy was constituted of diet, medication, stimulation and on multivariate analysis, injection trineurosol and calorie addition with injection trineurosol were found to be independent factors associated with recovery. Conclusions: ITS and PreITS are associated with language delay in as high as 76.7% cases. Early identification and management of ITS and preITS may improve the language development in such children. Further studies are warranted to explore the speech and language delay in children with ITS and preITS.