New Study Links Toddler Screen Time and Slower Speech Development
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new study from JAMA Pediatrics found that higher screen time for children 36 months old and younger hinders speech development.
Interaction with parents is crucial for toddlers as they learn how to properly interact with the world. A primary area where children imitate their caregivers is through speech development. The study found that screen time takes away these learning opportunities, leading to slower speech development for toddlers with a high average screen time.
“Having a language-rich home environment is critical to children’s language development, which promotes school readiness and success throughout the educational system,” the study said.
“This study found a negative association between screen time and parent child-talk, which suggests that screen time is a potential mechanism that could be the basis for an intervention to promote a home environment with more parent-child talk,” the study continued.
The researchers found that for every minute of screen time, children, on average, hear 6.6 fewer adult words, make 4.9 fewer vocalizations and engage in 1.1 fewer conversational turns. With an average of 42 minutes of screen time across a 16-hour day, these lost opportunities add up quickly.
The implications of slower speech development extend beyond simple communication, as early language exposure and development in younger children has been linked to emotional development, IQ and overall brain function.
While this study provides yet another example of why parents should avoid introducing screens at a young age, it did not reveal if screen time affects toddlers differently than other factors that disrupt communication with caregivers. Nor did it focus on the quality of the screen time, such as educational content vs. entertainment.
“If anything, we have probably underestimated how much screen usage – and associated ‘technoference’ – is going on around children because we haven’t been able to capture parents’ silent screen-related activities, such as reading emails, texting, or quietly scrolling through websites or social media,” senior research officer Mary Brushe said.
“In future research, it would be interesting to compare the effect of technoference with the effects of non-technological interference on parent-child talk outcomes to further delineate its impact,” the researchers said.
“Furthermore, the quality of screen exposure – the content of which was not captured in this study – may also play a role, potentially serving as a protective factor,” they added. “It could be that less communicative contact with the caregiver is not as detrimental if the screen time is of high quality and developmentally appropriate, educational content.”
Movieguide® previously reported on the impact of screen time:
A new study found a link between a baby’s screen time and delayed development in communication, fine motor skills and problem-solving.
Japanese researchers studied 7,000 babies that were 1 year old to better understand how a baby’s screen time affects their brain’s development.
“The more screen time these babies had at 1 year of age, the worse their developmental milestones were at 2 years of age, particularly in the realm of communication,” ABC News’ chief health and medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton told Good Morning America. “Some of those developmental issues, like fine and gross motor skills and problem-solving skills, may have shown a ding at age 2 but then kind of compensated and recovered by age four.”
