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Toddlers who spend most of their time plonked in front of a screen speak fewer words, according to a new study.
For every additional minute of screen time, scientists found children under the age of four can lose between one and five words.
Researchers warned that “technoference” is damaging children’s language development, with the speech of three-year-olds found to be the most affected.
In addition to speaking fewer words, those who spend more time in front of a screen also hear fewer words from adults – and engage in fewer back-and-forth interactions.
A team of Australian scientists collected data from 220 families between January 2018 and December 2021 when children were 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age.
They used advanced speech recognition technology to record children’s screen time and capture three measures of parent-child talk: adult words, child vocalizations and conversational turns.
The findings, published in the journal JAMA Paediatrics, indicated ‘a negative association’ between screen time and speech for toddlers.
For every additional minute of screen time, children heard fewer adult words, spoke fewer vocalizations, and engaged in fewer back-and-forth interactions.
The largest decreases were seen for children age three when an additional minute of screen time equated to a reduction of 6.6 adult words, 4.9 child vocalizations, and 1.1 conversational turns.
Children between 18 and 30 months were also affected, but no association was found between screen time and speech for one-year-olds.
The research team’s findings indicated that three-year-olds could be missing out on 1139 adult words, 843 vocalizations, and 194 conversations per day.
This was calculated based on the mean screen time children were exposed to in the study – 172 minutes.
Corresponding author Dr. Mary Brushe, of the University of Adelaide, said: “The findings of our study support the notion of ‘technoference’ for families, whereby young children’s exposure to screen time is interfering with opportunities to talk and interact in their home environment.
“We found that for every additional minute of screen exposure, parents and children were generally talking or vocalizing less, and were engaging in fewer back-and-forth interactions.
“This supports the notion that growing up in a language-rich home is important for a child’s speech development.”
She said the study supported interventions aimed at promoting speech and managing screen time but stressed that this must be done within ‘the reality of current family life.’
“It is unrealistic to assume that all families will simply stop using screens with their young children,” she explained.
“Instead, programs and policies could focus on ways to encourage families to use screen time as an opportunity for interaction with their child.”
This would involve parents chatting with their children during screen time, encouraging them to converse about what they are watching.
However, when this is not possible, Dr. Brushe suggested opting for high-quality, educational programs that are designed to facilitate children’s language development.
She added: “Encouraging these approaches within interventions aimed at promoting parent-child interactions and language exposure may alleviate some of the displacement that screen time creates on opportunities for parent-child talk.”
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
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