Omega-3 effect on Language learning below the age of Five

Abstract

Background: Language learning is an essential part of a child’s development in the early years.  Substantial compromise in the child’s language learning ability results in inability on the part of the children to communicate with the world and, therefore, may result in disability.  Omega-3 is a fatty acid essential for a child’s normal neurological development. The objective of this narrative review was to find out the role of omega-3 in early language development among children less than five years of age in light of the published scientific literature.

Methods: To identify the articles relevant to the role of omega 3 in early language development among children less than five years of age, an exhaustive literature search using PubMed and Google scholar has been used.  The articles published between January 2022 and May 2022 in English, was included for this literature search.

Results: There is a scarcity of literature to give a conclusive statement about the relationship between omega-3 and language learning ability of children below the age of five years.  There is some evidence of the relationship between omega-3 and other morbidities like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism which can compromise a child’s language learning ability.  In these conditions, it is not clear that giving omega-3 will improve the child’s ability to learn new languages.

Conclusion: Due to the lack of relevant literature, it is important to conduct adequately powered randomized controlled trials to determine the role of omega-3 in children’s language learning ability in the first five years.  Additionally, researchers need to use novel research methods to use observational data for causal inference to investigate the relationship between omega-3 and language learning abilities in children below five years of age.