TOPLINE:
New research shows increased screen time in children aged 12-36 months is associated with reduced verbal interactions between toddlers and their parents, which in turn could affect language development.
METHODOLOGY:
- The study included data from 220 families in Australia.
- Researchers used advanced speech recognition technology to capture children’s screen time and language environment at home during a 16-hour window every 6 months.
- They adjusted for variables such as the sex of the child, the education level of the mother, and psychological distress in the primary caregiver.
TAKEAWAY:
- Increases in screen time were associated with decreases in words spoken near children by adults, vocalizations by children, and back-and-forth interactions between adults and children. This correlation was especially notable at age 36 months.
- At age 36 months, each additional minute of screen time was linked to children hearing 6.6 fewer adult words, making 4.9 fewer vocalizations, and participating in 1.1 fewer conversational interactions.
- Based on the average daily screen time at that age seen in the study — 172 minutes (2.87 hours) — “children could be missing out on 1139 adult words, 843 vocalizations, and 194 conversational turns per day,” the researchers estimated.
IN PRACTICE:
“Identifying different ways that screen time could facilitate parent-child interactions, such as through interactive co-viewing, may be important strategies to support families given the current ubiquitous nature of screen time in families’ lives,” the authors of the study wrote.
What children watch and listen to may be an important consideration, according to a developmental scientist who was not involved with the study.
“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,” Marina Bazhydai, PhD, with Lancaster University in Lancaster, United Kingdom, said in her comments on the research.
SOURCE:
Mary E. Brushe, PhD, with Telethon Kids Institute and the University of Western Australia in Adelaide, was the corresponding author of the study. The research was published online in JAMA Pediatrics.
LIMITATIONS:
The study’s reliance on speech recognition technology did not capture all nuances of screen exposure.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was supported by grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.