Since the introduction of iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010 along with other companies touch screen phones and tablets, handheld devices are increasingly used by children of all ages and some infants are using them even before they start speaking. Research on the impact of screen time on child’s learning, behaviour, and family dynamics has lagged behind the rate of use of these devices.
Children younger than 2 years need hands-on exploration and social interaction with trusted caregivers to develop their cognitive, language, motor, and social and emotional skills.
When children are seeing screens without an interactive or physical component, they are more sedentary and, therefore, not practicing gross motor skills, such as walking and running, which in turn may delay development in this area. Screens can also decrease interactions with parents or caregivers hence have less verbal and nonverbal social exchanges.
Even background television has been shown to disrupt 1-2 year old child’s sustained toy play and reduce the quality and quantity of parent-child interactions including parental language addressed to their children
Excessive parental use of mobile devices has been shown to reduce parental interactions with young children. Parent media use is a strong predictor of child media habits.
Well-designed television programs for preschoolers such as Sesame Street has been found to have a positive impact on vocabulary, literacy, social behaviour, and academic knowledge and is associated with greater school readiness and increased academic performance. There is some evidence that at children aged 2 years can learn words from live video-chatting with a responsive adult. There is also some evidence that toddlers 2-3 years old can more readily learn from touch screen devices than they can from television.
There are plenty of educational apps targeted at parents of young children. Most of these apps have not been professionally researched or confirmed by developmental specialists or educators. Time spent on these apps is displacing time spent as free play, creativity, outdoor activities, or interacting with parents, siblings, and friends.
An article published in JAMA Pediatrics studied the association of excessive use of screens and its effect on developmental scores of 2441 children. Children in this study had an average of 2-3 hours of screen per day. Results showed greater screen time at 24 months was associated with poorer performance on developmental screening tests at 36 months Greater screen time at 36 months was associated with lower scores on developmental screening tests at 5 years
Study published in JAMA Pediatrics August 2023 of 7000 children concluded that greater the screen time at 1 year age the more the delay in communication and problem solving at 2 and 4 years of age
A TARGet Kids! study including 894 children between ages 6 months and 2 years The results of this study showed the more handheld devices the child used the more likely the child had speech delay. Each 30-minute increase in screen time led a 2.3 times increased risk of expressive speech delay.
There is growing evidence that screen time in early childhood may be linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Excessive media use during preschool years is associated with small but significant increases in BMI and sets the stage for weight gain later in childhood.
Increased duration of media exposure and the presence of a television, computer, or mobile device in the bedroom in early childhood have been associated with less sleep duration. Even infants exposed to screen media in the evening hours show significantly shorter night-time sleep duration than those with no evening screen exposure.
The Indian Academy of Paediatrics,American Academy of Pediatrics have issued guidelines for media use by children from birth to 5 years Similar guidelines were issued by WHO and other countries.
Following are the recommendations for parents based on these guidelines.
Avoid digital media use (except video-chatting with family and friends) in children younger than 18 to 24 months
For children aged 18 to 24 months of age, if you want to introduce digital media, choose high-quality programming, and use media together with your child. Avoid solo media use at this age.
Do not feel pressured to introduce technology early, interfaces are so intuitive that children will figure them out quickly once they start using them at home or in school.
For children 2 to 5 years of age, limit screen uses to 1 hour per day of high-quality programming, Co view with your children.
Choose age-appropriate, educational content.
Test apps before the child uses them and play together, and help children understand what they are seeing and help them apply what they learn to the world around them
Avoid fast-paced programs and apps with lots of distracting content, and those with violent content.
Turn off televisions and other devices when not in use.
Avoid using screens as a babysitter
Avoid using media as the only way to calm your child. It can be occasionally used to sooth your child however using media as the only strategy to calm could lead to problems with limit setting or the inability of children to develop their own emotion regulation.
Keep bedrooms, mealtimes, and parent–child playtimes screen free. Parents should preferably keep their devices on “do not disturb “mode at this time.
No screens at least 1 hour before bedtime and remove devices from bedrooms before bedtime
Parents should review their own media use to enhance their parent–child interactions.
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