NEW DELHI: Exposing young children to prolonged screen time can affect their ability to learn communication and problem-solving skills, new study suggests.
According to the study, published in JAMA paediatrics recently, researchers from Japan’s Tohoku University asked the mothers of 7,097 children aged 1 years about their child’s daily screen time exposure.They found that 49% of the children had less than 1 hour exposure, 30% had 1 to less than 2 hours, 18% had 2 to less than 4 hours, and 4% had 4 or more hours of screen time daily. Next, the researchers asked the mothers questions to assess the child’s development at age 2 and 4 years respectively.
For example, they asked how often the child babbled, vocalised, and understood to assess her or his communication skill. To assess gross motor skills, they asked about the child’s arm, body, and leg movement.
Similarly, the mothers were asked about other domains of development like problem solving (learning and playing with toys) and personal and social skills (solitary social play and playing with toys and other children).
The response options included “yes”, “sometimes”, or “not yet”. It was observed that longer screen time at age 1 year was associated with a higher risk of developmental delays in communication and problem solving at ages 2 and 4 years, although no association was observed in the gross motor domain.
Dr Anupam Sibal, child specialist and group medical director of Apollo hospital, said the Indian Academic of Paediatrics suggests children below 1 year of age shouldn’t be exposed to screen at all. However, he added, the recommendation is barely followed, and parents often play animation videos or songs to keep the young children engaged. “This has a detrimental effect on the child’s development and must be discouraged,” Dr Sibal said.
Dr Roma Kumar, psychiatrist at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram hospital said delay in communication among children with greater exposure to screen time could be because the child is learning receptive communication (which means understanding and receiving messages) but he or she isn’t necessarily proficient in expressive communication (sending a message of how one is feeling, their wants, likes, dislikes etc).
Children up to two years of age are like sponges; they take in whatever is told to them or shown to them. Not engaging in active communication leads to them not developing the skill to converse or express their wants, Dr Kumar said, adding further that prolonged screen time also reduces opportunities for physical movements, disrupts sleep patterns and contributes to attention problems. Because it is difficult to limit screen time in general in today’s world of electronic devices, the JAMA Pediatrics study suggests, 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.