You hear fewer spoken words: Screen time in children is at the expense of language development

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Children who spend a lot of screen time interact less with adults and are less aware of conversational processes, scientists from Australia explain in the study published on Monday in the journal ‘Jama Pediatrics’.

Research has repeatedly shown how important it is for a child’s language acquisition and social-emotional development to talk to him a lot and interact with him in the home environment, according to the article. In many cases, however, they focused on parents’ screen time and its consequences.

The group led by Mary Brushe from the University of Adelaide’s School of Public Health had now collected data from 220 families using speech recognition technology every six months from January 2018 to December 2021. The 12- to 36-month-old children’s screen time and home language environment were recorded on an average 16-hour day.

Less interaction with adults

The analysis found that each increase in screen time was associated with a decrease in the number of parent-child conversations. The children heard fewer words from the adults in their household, spoke less themselves and interacted less often in conversations.

Even in families that adhere to current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on screen time – one hour per day for three-year-olds – children can miss around 400 adult words per day, according to the study. However, it is estimated that the average screen time is much higher in most families.

A ‘rich linguistic environment’ is important for language development

However, no research has been conducted into whether children who spend a particularly long time in front of a screen actually have a smaller vocabulary and poorer language skills.

“For children’s language development in the early years, it is important to grow up in a linguistically rich home environment,” the research team said. This influences, among other things, school readiness and success during the rest of the educational process. (SDA)

Source:Blick