Children also spoke less while wearing masks and missed out on talking with their schoolmates.

Now, to encourage pupils to start speaking more, one primary school has extended its break periods to give children more time to mix with friends.

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Statistics showed the number diagnosed with speech development problems fell last year, when children returned to school for in-person classes.

Department of Health figures showed the number of children under 12 newly diagnosed with speech problems, language delay or disorders rose from 4,300 in 2019, before the pandemic, to 4,570 in 2020 and 5,401 in 2021.

Speech problems were the only developmental disorder which rose in 2020, when attendance at the government’s child assessment centres fell by almost a third.

The number of children diagnosed with other developmental problems, including attention disorder, developmental coordination problems, borderline and significant developmental delay, autism, dyslexia and mathematics learning difficulties, fell by 10 per cent in 2020.

The number of youngsters with speech problems fell by nearly a quarter last year after hitting a high in 2021. Nearly all pupils were able to return to school from last April and there have been no more citywide school suspensions since then.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po earlier raised hopes of the mask mandate being scrapped after he said it could be lifted “at the end of the season” – a reference to the end of March.

Accountant Erica Chow, in her 30s and a mother of three aged five and younger, said her eldest child was diagnosed with speech delay and other developmental problems.

She said she thought it was because the boy had only seen his teachers and classmates masked and could not observe mouth movements.

Chow and her husband had to work, so their children were left at home during school suspensions with a domestic helper who could not speak Cantonese, she added.

She noticed the boy lagged behind in language learning, and was not good at interpreting facial expressions.

“My son did not know how to express himself and he just spoke in single words, without using much vocabulary,” she said.

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After she had him tested at an assessment centre, he received preschool rehabilitation services help from an NGO, the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong.

Moon Law Ka-yin, a social worker with the organisation, which also runs kindergartens, said that during the long period of school suspensions, teachers lacked the opportunity to spot children having difficulty.

“Parents staying at home also could not see how their children fared when compared to others,” she said.

The result was that assessments and remedial actions for children with problems were delayed, she added.

At Fung Kai No 1 Primary School in North district, principal Chu Wai-lam noticed after masks became mandatory in 2020 that more children had problems with pronunciation.

He said children could not see how teachers moved their mouths as they spoke in class. During online lessons, some had trouble hearing their teachers clearly.

Students suffered from having to wear masks and being deprived of interaction with their teachers and classmates, he said.

“They then found it hard to communicate with others and express themselves,” Chu explained.

His school has engaged a speech therapist, and also extended the two break periods from 15 minutes to 25 minutes to give children more time to mix and speak with one another.

Clinical psychologist Vivian Siu Ho-yee, of the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, said children learn pronunciation by observing and imitating others’ mouth positions, but that was not possible while everyone was masked.

“Children who experience delays in speech need in-person training and therapists will need to check if their tongues are moving correctly during training,” she said.

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She said children aged two to six were in a “golden training period” and it was better for those with various conditions to receive help at the time because it would require more effort when they were older.

With children mostly staying at home in 2020 and 2021, many with developmental problems might have missed being identified and helped early, she said.

She warned that as in-person classes had largely resumed, including in preschools, some children might be “overstimulated” by all the activities and may need time to adapt.

“If pupils get enough time and room to adapt and do not encounter suspensions on and off, they will slowly get used to it,” she explained.