What’s the Big Deal about Screen Time?

There is no denying that we live in the digital age. As adults, we spend much of our days in front of screens, using them not only for entertainment, but also for learning, organizing and communicating.  Being able to interact with technology is an important skill, and most kids seem to enjoy screen time, so what’s the big deal?

 Screen Time’s Effect on Language Development

 To understand why it’s important to limit screen time in young children, we need to understand how children acquire language.  Children learn how to talk and understand language by communicating with other people. They learn language not only by observing other people talking (such as might be replicated in a TV program), but also by practicing responses and using the reactions of other language users to shape the way they use and understand it.

 In the first years of life, children are most receptive to learning new language and their brains are tuned and ready to create the neural connections they will need to communicate throughout their lives. 

 Because of this, a child’s exposure to early interactions is extremely important.  Young children are sponges, but once the window for early language development has closed, it becomes much more difficult to learn new language skills.

 Every minute a child spends in front of a screen is a minute they are not spending interacting with other people.  The increase in screen time adds up to many, many missed opportunities.  Instead of chatting about what you’re doing as you chop vegetables or driving by scenery in the car, many children are engrossed in a game or watching a video. 

 It’s easy to want to shrug this off and think that there are lots of other language opportunities in a day, but studies are now confirming more and more that there is a link between the amount of screen time a child is exposed to and the risk of potentially long-term language delays. 

 A 2017 study from the Hospital for Sick Children found that toddlers with more screen time exposure were more likely to have delays in their expressive language skills (ie. the use of words and sentences).  They also found shocking increases in expressive language delays the more screen time a child was exposed to.    Another recent study showed that toddlers who spent more time watching videos said on average fewer words than their counterparts who spent less time watching a screen. 

There is also a growing body of evidence to suggest that the effects of screen time can be even more potentially detrimental to the language development of kids who are already vulnerable to language delays, such as those on the Autism Spectrum.

So what to do?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under two.  This is the time when a child’s language system is really developing and is most vulnerable.

For children aged two to five, they recommend the following:

·      Selecting high-quality programs

·      Watching videos with your child

·      Talking with your child while watching videos

·      Helping your child connect what they see with their everyday experiences

 What children in this age group watch (i.e. the quality of the programming) and how they watch it (ie. while interacting with you and having you help them to interpret it) may be even more important than how much they watch.