Whether on the news or in conversations with your friends, you’ve likely heard references to screen time. Screen time is time spent in front of electronic screens (televisions, tablets, smartphones, etc.). There is a lot of discussion regarding screen time in general and kids’ screen time in particular because of concerns regarding how it impacts health and development.
It’s important to consider these impacts because most kids are surrounded by screens. Is screen time harmful, helpful, or a bit of both? Do we need to severely limit how much time our kids spend in front of screens or are concerns about screen time overblown? I want to do what’s best for my kids, so I’ve been looking at a bunch of research on the impacts of screen time. Here’s what I’ve found.
Possible impacts of screen time
Doctors and others who study screen time have identified a number of negative ways that screen time may impact kids.
- Physical inactivity and weight gain
- Delayed language and cognitive development
- Poor psychological well-being (social isolation, depression, aggression, etc.)
- Poor sleep patterns
- Shortened attention spans
If I were to share information about all of these concerns, then this post would be incredibly long. To avoid that, I’m going to focus on how screen time impacts the language and cognitive development of young kids. Please note that I’ve listed my references at the end of this post.
Why screen time impacts kids’ language and cognitive development
We live in a three-dimensional (3-D) world. Playing in this 3-D world is a rich, multidimensional experience. Children’s minds and bodies engage in this play. Screens provide two-dimensional (2-D) experiences. These experiences can be stimulating, but they can’t provide whole mind–body learning or the social interaction children get in our 3-D world.
In one study, researchers found that children at ages 12, 15, and 18 months could imitate a multistep sequence they viewed on TV; however, this lagged behind their ability to imitate the same sequence when viewed in a live demonstration. In another study, researchers had one group of 2-year-olds watch a live video of a person in the next room hiding a stuffed dog. Another group watched the exact same scene unfold through a window from an adjacent room. Both groups of children then entered the room where the stuffed dog had been hidden. Almost all of the children who viewed the scene through the window found the toy, but only half of those who watched it on the monitor successfully located the toy. The researchers believed this was due to transfer deficit.
Transfer deficit is the inability of young kids to apply information gleaned from a 2-D object (such as a TV or tablet) to a 3-D object (a real life situation). Young kids do not have the thinking skills needed to understand that what they view on a screen is a stand-in for the real thing. Researchers concluded that though babies and young kids can learn from TV and touchscreens, learning through real-life interactions is more effective and efficient.
While transfer deficit is important, researchers believe that one of the main reasons screen time impacts kids has nothing to do with what is on the screen or how kids interpret this. The impact is felt because of what kids are not doing. While watching TV or using a computer or mobile device, kids are not exploring, problem solving, looking at books, playing imaginatively, interacting with adults and peers, being creative, etc. Even background TV (such as shows being watched by parents or other caregivers) interferes with play-based exploration because of the voices, sudden noises, and flashes of light coming from the TV.
Another significant concern of researchers is the pace at which changes occur during many kids’ shows and on kids’ apps. Rapid-fire changes in sensory information (i.e., images and sounds) can cause sensory overload. Often this overload isn’t enough to make a child shut down completely. He or she will be able to keep up with the processing, but his or her brain has to work super-fast to do this. This is why children often become hyperactive, moody, and prone to act out when they are pulled away from screens. Their brains remain in super-fast mode even though there is much less sensory stimuli to process. They are hyper and moody because they are searching for stimuli. This usually resolves once they readjust to real life and normal sensory stimuli.
Specific impacts
Here are some specific research findings on screen time and the development of young kids.
- In a study about language development, 12- to 18-month-olds who regularly watched an educational video designed to enhance language development learned fewer words than 12- to 18-month-olds whose parents were given a list of 25 words from the DVD and were instructed to use them in their everyday interactions with their child.
- In a study about cognition, more TV exposure before children reached the age of 3 was associated with poorer memory and reading scores when these children reached ages 6 and 7.
- In a study about language development, the duration of daily TV exposure for 6-month-olds from low-income families predicted lower scores on tests of cognition and language (both expressive and receptive) when these infants turned 14 months of age.
- In a study about executive functioning, children who just watched a fast-paced cartoon performed significantly worse on executive function tasks than children who just watched a slow-paced cartoon and children who drew pictures instead of watching a cartoon.
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are numerous reasons for us to be concerned about screen time and limit how much screen time our kids get! In light of this, I want to be sure to communicate two things. First, I am not exploring this topic to point a finger at anyone or to make anyone feel guilty. My kids watch TV (not traditional TV, but shows streamed via Amazon). In fact, for the last year or so I’ve let them watch more than experts say they should. My concern about this is what motivated me to start exploring the topic. In other words, I’m not telling you anything that I don’t need to hear myself!
The second thing is that we don’t have sufficient research to accurately say how screen time affects kids. There are a lot of things we just don’t know. For example, we can’t look at adults in their 50s (or even in their 30s) in order to evaluation the long-term impacts of screen time. This is because screens as we know them today (computers, smartphones, tablets, handheld video games, etc.) didn’t exist until recently. Moreover, many researchers who have studied screen time have solely looked at time in front of the TV; they haven’t considered time spent using apps on phones, playing games on computers, etc. Thus, we don’t know if the impacts of these differ from those of TV screen time. Finally, the most critical thing to remember is that the research available demonstrates correlations (i.e., that two things are related to one another). In other words, we might be able to see that kids who watch the most TV have the poorest reading skills, but we can’t prove that it is the TV watching that causes the poor reading skills. We just know that the two are related.
Because of ethical considerations, researchers will never be able to conduct the sort of research (randomized controlled trials) on this topic that would yield the strongest evidence (which would offer “proof” of the impacts of screen time). Therefore, we need researchers to carry out more studies to add additional findings to the preponderance of evidence from which we can draw conclusions about the impacts of screen time.
There is so much here to consider! If you’d like additional information, check out my sources:
- Screen Sense: Setting the Record Straight
- Associated Between Screen Time and Children’s Performance on a Developmental Test
- What Screen Time and Screen Media Do To Your Child’s Brain and Sensory Processing Ability
- Children’s Television Viewing and Cognitive Outcomes
In two weeks I’ll share some thoughts on realistic screen time guidelines. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you feel that screen time impacts your young kids? Do you believe it impacts their learning or behavior?
Shared at the following:
Encouraging Hearts and Home, Busy Monday, and Thursday Favorite Things.
This is so interesting! Jumping on to your point about sensory overload, I once read a mention of how part of the problem I that so many kid’s shows now are fast with lots of bright colors, as opposed to older shows and movies that moved much slower. For example, when I think of two movies I enjoy-Bambi and the recent Into the Spider-Verse, the former is much slower animation with softer colors. The latter is a GREAT movie, but it involves tons of action, bright colors, quick-moving sequences, or even shots of three different scenes. That’s a huge contrast!
Have you read the book Reset Your Child’s Brain by Victoria Dunckley? I read it once and it was very, very interesting. It really helped me think a lot more intentionally about screen time even for myself. We don’t own a TV, but as a family we do watch short YouTube videos, or things on Twitch or Amazon or an occasional movie together. I try to keep screen time very minimal in the daytime hours when my husband is at work, but there was definitely an afternoon a few weeks ago where I just needed 30 minutes to sit without being talked to/touched so I put on a religious show for my kids. And this summer, when it gets really hot, I’ll be doing a Summer Movie Series for the toddler at home-once a week or so in the afternoon, we’ll watch a movie together (mainly Pixar movies, I think).
I will have to see if our library has that book, AnneMarie. It sounds like it may contain some useful info.
I totally understand the need for a few minutes without being talked to or touched. There are some days where I hear “mom, mom, mommy, mooooooomm…” so many times that I just need a few minutes of silence. I honestly don’t think putting our little ones in front of the TV for a few minutes is harmful. We need those moments to collect ourselves and get refreshed, which ultimately makes us better mothers.
I have looked a lot at screen time too and have wondered how it will impact my children. I think too it varies by child. My oldest was always allowed screens without many rules or restrictions because I didn’t hold a lot of interest to him; he would have much rather been outside or playing with toys inside using his imagination. My younger two have always had restrictions because they will get so sucked into what they are doing that they will ignore everything around them (even their own bodies; skipping meals and not drinking). We have always struggled to find that perfect balance and I find that as they age we have to keep adjusting our expectations. Thanks so much for sharing what you’ve found with us at Encouraging Hearts and Home. Pinned.
You make some good points! I’m one of those individuals who isn’t really interested in television. I don’t watch TV. Practically, I don’t have time, but even if I did, it just wouldn’t hold my interest. I’d rather read a book. I can see how different kids would be like this, too.
I definitely think readjusting expectations with age is necessary. Interestingly, I did find some information on how screen time impacts older kids/teens, but it mostly looked at mental health and friendships. I didn’t see much on how it impacts things like learning or family relationships.
Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared.
Thanks, Marilyn!