02508nas a2200157   4500000000100000008004100001260004400042653002400086100001600110700001500126245012800141856015300269490000700422520190700429022001402336       2022                            d  bSpringer Science and Business Media LLC10aInfectious Diseases1 aMazibuko XI1 aChimbari M00aThe effect of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths on expressive language skills among African preschool children  uhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673621028683/pdfft?md5=a4231fa6b17cf99d38568335fa825e18&pid=1-s2.0-S0140673621028683-main.pdf0 v223 a<p>Abstract Background Schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminths (STH) have been associated with compromised child development. We determined the effect of schistosomiasis and STH on expressive language skills among isiZulu speaking preschool children focusing on the variables: age, gender, school and&nbsp;stunting. Methods We quantitatively compared the performance of a cohort of infected and non-infected children using a 2 phased approach. In phase 1 infected children were treated with praziquantel and matched with non-infected children and both groups were tested for expressive language performance. In phase 2 both groups of children were re-tested for expressive language skills using a similar but modified test. The participants were 106 preschool children between the age of 4 and 6&nbsp;years, 11&nbsp;months. The Developmental Language Test was adapted as a linguistically and culturally appropriate tool for assessing isiZulu expressive language skills. Results The overall performance of the children in phases 1 and 2 were statistically similar. There was significant Pearson’s correlation of expressive language skills to age (0.002, P &lt; 0.01), schistosomiasis i.e. vocabulary 1 (0.024, P &lt; 0.05) and narrative skills (0.001, P &lt; 0.01) and soil-transmitted helminths i.e. vocabulary 1 (0.006, P &lt; 0.05), colours (0.029, P &lt; 0.05) and narrative skills (0.001, P &lt; 0.01) in phase 2 with small to high Cohen’s d effect size for various language subtests. Conclusion We concluded that even mild schistosomiasis and STH may compromise the performance of preschool children on expressive language. However poor ability in following instructions may have contributed to general poor performance across the two groups tested. Diet, school effect and stunting did not influence the performance of the children on expressive language.</p>
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