Worried about your child's excessive screen time? It's not entirely their fault, as they often mimic what they see. A recent study has found that kids' screen habits closely mirror those of their parents and excessive screen use in the family can negatively impact children's language development.
The latest study published in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology suggests the need to limit screen times and focus on more face-to-face interaction within the family for improved language skills.
"Our study reveals that children's screen use patterns are similar to those of their parents," said the lead author of the study, Dr. Tiia Tulviste of the University of Tartu in a news release.
"Child language researchers emphasize the importance of everyday interactions with adults in early language development, where children are actively involved. At the same time, we know that all family members tend to their screen devices. Because time is finite, we need to find out how this fierce competition between face-to-face interaction and screen time affects child language development," Dr. Tulviste said.
To explore the impact of screen time on children's vocabulary and grammatical skills, the research team studied over 400 parents and their children aged 2.5 to 4 years. The researchers examined the screen habits of both parents and kids, along with an assessment of the children's language development.
The findings reveal a clear connection between excessive screen time and poorer vocabulary and grammar skills in children. Surprisingly, even screen-based activities that promote socializing or co-viewing did not improve language development. Playing video games, in particular, was found to harm language skills, regardless of whether it was the child, mother, or father engaging in the gaming.
"While reading ebooks and playing some educational games may offer language learning opportunities, especially for older children, research shows that during the first years of life, the most influential factor is everyday dyadic face-to-face parent-child verbal interaction," Dr. Tulviste explained.
Although the findings provide valuable insights into the impact of screen time on children's language skills, the study has certain limitations. Since it has a cross-sectional design, the participants were observed only once, without tracking their development over a longer period. Also, the data were collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, which might have significantly affected the screen time patterns and could have influenced the findings.
