Kids and screens, screens and kids. They’re drawn together like moths to the porchlight, right? And though parents love the moments of peaceful quiet they get when they stick a glowing smartphone screen (preferably their spouse’s) into the cracker-crumb-covered hand of a fussy child, they still can’t help wonder if maybe … sometimes … it’s not such a great idea.
Well, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics suggests that it might not be so great most of thetime.
The researchers, from Ippei Takahashi of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, quizzed nearly 7,100 parents of young children. Their questions probed the adults about their kids’ screen time and then evaluated their respective tyke’s development.
They found that 1-year-olds who amassed tons of screen time (four or more hours a day), developed some clear delays in communication and problem-solving skills a bit later in life.
Now that might not raise a panic signal concerning your child. Only about 4% of the babies in that huge study had four or more hours of daily screen time. Only another 18% spent between two and four hours in front of a screen. Most had less than two hours. Let’s face it, four hours a day is a lot of time for a baby to be in front of a screen.
But it happens. And the bigger point is that screens aren’t the best things for your baby to stare at: You are. And even if your own common sense doesn’t drive home that point, physicians and psychologists surely do.
“Face-to-face interaction between a parent and child gives babies information about language and meaning through facial expressions, words, tone of voice and physical feedback,” David Lewkowicz, a developmental psychologist at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn. says in a New York Times article. “It doesn’t happen when you’re watching the screen,” Lewkowicz said.
So am I saying run from screens with your babies clutched tightly to your chest? No. In this day and age, few parents can avoid the temptation of a little screen-time babysitting. Even our parents had TV. But be hesitant to stick a phone in your little’s hand. And then do your best to take David Lewkowicz’s advice: “Talk to your child as much as you can, face-to-face as much as you can.”
Hey, even a bright porchlight won’t draw a set of young, loving eyes away from that.
6 Responses
-My verdict? There’s no reason for a child to have a smart device until they are mature enough to handle the responsibility. After all, these devices are very powerful and in the words of one of the greatest fictional characters of all time, Uncle Ben Parker, “with great power comes great responsibility.”.
-My chief concern there is just on the price of the devices. I’d rather not give a device to a child if its price, in hundreds of USD, exceeds the age of the child.
That said, I’m curious if a screen’s lack of tactile elements (“I can’t touch it, I can’t poke it, I can’t spin it, so what am I really learning”) is a part of this issue.
-Thank you for sharing this information. Personally, I don’t believe any child should be allowed to watch television, use a computer, or use any other screen-based device until they’re at least six years old. And you are not alone in your beliefs. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) used to have an “Early Childhood” rating for games specifically designed for children between the ages of three and six, and I remember thinking that the “Early Childhood” rating should be abolished. Thankfully, on March 1, 2018, the ESRB officially retired the “Early Childhood” rating. (Only 268 games actually got the rating in the ESRB’s 29-year history).
-I think parts of this may be a bit excessive – I remember using typing tutors from the time I was in day-care, and my parents had me in typing lessons from the time I was very young.
It definitely paid off.
-Has there also been a study on the parents using screen time in the presence of their children?
-That’s a good question, especially if the parents are using those devices at the expense of being attentive to their children.
And the phone’s in the cradle
With the silver cord