One-year-olds who spend hours on their screens could become slower to learn to problem solve and communicate, a study has warned.
Tots plonked in front of a screen for more than four hours a day during their first year of life experienced developmental delays in the two areas when assessed at two and four years old.
According to Tohoku University, Japan, the more the kids watched, the greater the effect.
Scientists linked high screen time aged one with challenges in fine motor function, and social and personal skills by the time they were two.
However, after the age of four their motor, social and personal skills matched their peers.
The researchers were torn on two hypotheses, first, that the kids simply caught up or that they were already suffering from the slower fine motor, social, and personal development and had high screen time as a result.
According to the research, 48.5 percent of the cohort spent under an hour watching the screen, 29.5 percent had one to two hours, 17.9 percent clocked between two and four hours, and 4.1 percent stared at a screen for over four hours a day.
But researchers did note that some kids could see an improvement in their language skills if their screens were used for educational purposes.
Associate Professor and study author Dr. Taku Obara said: “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that high-quality (e.g. educational) programs should be selected when introducing digital media to children aged 18 to 24 months.
“Because it is difficult to limit screen time in general in today’s world of electronic devices, it may be beneficial to identify and limit the screen time aspects that are associated with developmental delays while taking advantage of the educational aspects.”
To complete the study published in JAMA Pediatrics, the team used data from pregnant women at 50 obstetric clinics who had been recruited between July 2013 and March 2017.
They picked 7,097 children for the study, 3,674 of whom were boys and 3,423 girls.
Each parent was given a questionnaire asking: “On a typical day, how many hours do you allow your children to watch TV, DVDs, video games, internet games (including mobile phones and tablets), etc?”
The response options were none, less than one, one to less than two, two to less than four, or four or more hours per day.
Kids were again assessed on five domains.
This included communication, such as babbling, vocalizing, and understanding and gross motor, such as arm, body, and leg movement.
It also looked at fine motor skills, such as hand and finger movement, and problem-solving such as learning and playing with toys.
Lastly, it looked at personal and social skills, focussing on solitary social play and playing with toys and other children.
Ask whether they did these, parents responded: “Yes,” “sometimes” or “not yet.”
Dr. Obara concluded: “Greater screen time at age one year was associated in a dose-response manner with developmental delays in communication and problem-solving at ages two and four years.
“These findings suggest that domains of developmental delay should be considered separately in future discussions on screen time and child development.”
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