Children in families who spend lots of time in front of a screen have weaker language skills, according to a new study.
And video games had the biggest negative effect on vocabulary, say scientists.
Screens — whether a telly, laptop, mobile phone, or tablet — have become as much a part of children’s lives as adults.
Scientists in Estonia looked at what effect screen time has on children’s developing brains, especially critical language skills.
They surveyed the parents of more than 400 youngsters about their screen use, their children’s screen use, and their children’s language skills.
The team found that parents who use screens a lot also have children who use screens a lot.
And children’s higher screen time was associated with poorer language skills, according to the findings published in the journal Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.
The researchers surveyed a representative sample of Estonian families, including 421 children aged between two-and-a-half and four years old.
The survey asked parents to estimate how long each member of the family would spend using different screen devices for different purposes on a typical weekend day.
It also asked how much of that time would be spent using a screen as a family, for example watching a film together.
The parents were asked to fill out a questionnaire evaluating their children’s language ability.
The research team sorted both children and adults into three screen use groups: high, low, and moderate.
They then analyzed the data to see if there was a link between parental screen use and children’s screen use.
The researchers found that parents and children generally belonged to the same groups: parents who used screens a lot had children who also used screens a lot.
Controlling for age, they looked at the language development of these children, and found that children who used screens less scored higher for both grammar and vocabulary.
No form of screen use had a positive effect on children’s language skills, according to the findings.
Originally published by Talker News