Children who spend more time behind a screen perform worse on various tests. That is the conclusion of researchers from the University of Calgary, among others.
The scientists studied the development of 2,400 children between two and five years old in relation to the time they spent behind a computer screen, on their phone or in front of the TV. “What is new about this study is that we are looking at very young children. The brain develops very quickly at that age,” Dr Sheri Madigan told The Guardian.
For the study, mothers had to report how much time their child spent behind a screen at the ages of two, three and five. They also filled in standard questionnaires about their child’s development. Among other things, they were asked to what extent the child could draw certain shapes, form sentences and copy behaviour. Other factors such as sleep and reading aloud were also taken into account in the study, which was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
On average, two-year-olds spent seventeen hours a week on TV or tablets. At three it was 25 hours a week, and at five the amount of screen time dropped to eleven hours. According to the research team, a clear trend emerged: the more time children spent behind a screen, the worse they scored on the developmental tests. “Excessive screen time can prevent children from developing optimally,” the scientists write. “When young children are staring at a screen, they miss important opportunities to develop interpersonal, motor and communication skills,” they add.
The researchers conclude that there is a clear link between more screen time at the age of 24 months and a poorer score at the age of 36 months. The same applies to the influence of more screen time at 36 months and poorer performance at sixty months.
Although scores were worse with more screen time, a poor score did not always mean that a child had watched a lot of screens. That supports the hypothesis that more screen time leads to lower scores, rather than some other, unknown factor.
According to the researchers, more screen time comes at the expense of developing social skills, language and speech, movement and other basic skills. However, there is no hard time limit above which screen time becomes harmful. Interactive programmes that ask children to move or respond may be less harmful to their development.
Source: Gezondheidsnet
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