You are fine mama. There is nothing wrong with being cautious with children. I feel worse about seeing parents that don't watch their children at all. But yes, children need social interaction. They learn a lot that way.

On the speech, my daughter was born with a speech problem, and I went through the same feelings of feeling bad when other people looked at her. She couldn't pronounce many letters right so her words sounded more like Waa Waa sounds. We had to take her to years of speech therapy. She is 18 now and doing fine.

Did I become overly protective of her? Yes, absolutely. But after a while I realized that it was important for her to learn life lessons through experience. So I loosened up a bit.

Get your kids evaluated to see why their speech is delayed. It will help you understand what, if anything, needs to be done.