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A first-of-its kind study has found that for every minute of screen time toddlers are exposed to at home, they hear fewer adult words, make fewer vocalisations and engage in fewer back-and-forth conversations with their parents.
The research, led by The Kids Research Institute Australia Senior Research Officer , saw researchers track 220 Australian families over a two-and-a-half-year period to measure the relationship between family screen use and children’s language environment.
The study – part of Dr Brushe’s PhD with the University of Adelaide – saw researchers use Fitbit-like devices to measure the amount of electronic noise and parent-child talk surrounding children aged between 12 and 36 months. This included noise generated by screens viewed by the parent and/or child.
In all, researchers coded more than 7,000 hours of audio to calculate the amount of screen time children were exposed to as opposed to other electronic noises.
“We wanted to understand how much screen time children were exposed to during the early years and whether that interfered with the amount of language these kids heard and spoke in their home,” Dr Brushe said.
“We know the amount of talk and interaction children experience is critical for their early language development – this study highlights that screen time may be getting in the way of that.”
The findings – published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics – showed the more screen time children were exposed to, the less parent-child interaction they experienced during the critical early years.
“Our findings support the notion of ‘technoference’ as a real issue for Australian families, whereby young children’s exposure to screen time is interfering with opportunities to talk and interact in their home environment,” Dr Brushe said.
“The results were most profound when children reached three years of age. Just one minute of screen time was associated with seven fewer adult words, five fewer child vocalisations and one less back-and-forth interaction.”
eg 1 hour per day at 36 months of age the present results indicate that children could be missing out on approximately 397 adult words
294 vocalisations, and
68 conversational turns every day ‼️
We know, however – both from our own data and from international estimates – that children on average are exceeding these guidelines,” she said.
Based on the actual average daily screen time for children in this study at 36 months – 172 minutes, or just under three hours – they could in fact be missing out on up to 1,139 adult words, 843 vocalisations and 194 conversational turns per day 🥹
“If anything, we have probably underestimated how much screen usage – and associated ‘technoference’ – is going on around children because we haven’t been able to capture parents’ silent screen-related activities, such as reading emails, texting, or quietly scrolling through websites or social media.”
The study, Screen time and parent-child talk when children are aged 12 to 36 months, was a collaboration with the University of Adelaide, the University of Oxford, and the Menzies Health Institute at Griffith University. It can be read in JAMA .
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