Pediatricians have long warned parents that toddlers are easily overstimulated by digital images. Now, evidence has emerged that screen time also stunts their verbal development.
In a first-of-its-kind study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute in South Australia monitored parent-child conversations in 220 families. They recorded the conversations during 16-hour periods, once every six months when the children were 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months old.
The researchers found that for every extra minute of screen time, the children aged 1-3 years old heard fewer adult words, had fewer vocalizations and engaged in fewer back-and-forth interactions with their parents. Children aged 3 were the most affected.
These findings are troubling since toddlers need a “language-rich environment” to mature into successful students and adults, said the study’s co-author Mary Brushe, senior research officer at Telethon, a medical research center in Adelaide.
“Our research showed the more screen time young children were exposed to, the less talking and conversations children experienced during their critical early years,” Ms. Brushe told The Washington Times.
The study used Fitbit-like devices to record more than 7,000 hours of parent-child talk and electronic noise — which researchers dubbed “technoference” — in each family during the sessions from Jan. 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2021.
For each extra minute of screen time, the recordings revealed that children aged 3 years old heard seven fewer adult words, spoke five fewer words and engaged in one less conversational exchange a day.
Since the average 3-year-old in the study experienced 2 hours and 52 minutes of daily screen time, Ms. Brushe said that translated into each one missing an average of 1,139 adult words, 843 vocalizations and 194 back-and-forth interactions a day.
While participating parents were unaware at the time of the recordings that the research would focus on screen time, the study noted they later gave consent to use them.
The study follows multiple reports that screen time surged for many families during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated long after public health restrictions ended.
Other than video chats, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under 2 years old. It suggests no more than one hour a day of high-quality programming for children ages 2 to 5.
According to Ms. Brushe, parents should limit toddlers’ screen time to age-appropriate, high-quality content that allows them to repeat words and phrases from the screen together.
“Given screen time has become so embedded in our daily lives, we don’t want this to be another thing parents are made to feel guilty about,” Ms. Brushe said. “Instead, we hope our research can provide some evidence-based guidance on ways to make screen time healthier.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.