Excessive Exposure To Screens In Children
There are scientific studies that show that excessive exposure to screens in children is associated with poorer cognitive and social-emotional development. When we talk about screens, we mean smartphones, tablets, TVs, computers and so on.
Often parents do not know the consequences that excessive screen time has on their little ones. Specifically for this article, we will draw on the recent study by Madigan, S., Browne, D., Racine, N., Mori, C. and Tough, S. (2019), published in JAMA Pediatrics , from the American Academy of Pediatrics .
The research, called the Association Between Screen Time and Children’s Performance on a Developmental Screening Test , reveals several consequences that children may suffer from when they use the mentioned devices to an excessive degree.
Scientific study of excessive exposure to screens in children
We will share the content of the study and its implications in sections. That way, it becomes easier to read and understand.
The study
This study closely followed the development of 2,400 Canadian children. It demonstrated experimentally that the longer the child spent in front of the screens at the ages of 2 and 3, the worse their performance at 4 and 5 years.
The research explored the child’s progress on five domains:
- communication
- gross motor skills
- fine motor skills
- problem solving
- social skills
For example, to assess communicative mastery, they asked the child if they could form four-word sentences or identify common parts of the body.
In the meantime, they were asked to stand on their feet or three beads on a string to gain motor skills. Then they found that the more time these children spent in front of the screens, the worse they performed these exercises.
Researchers say that during the first five years of life, the brain is very sensitive to stimuli. This is known as the critical period. It is actually very important for growth and maturation.
Consequences of excess exposure to screens in children
Everything seems to show that excess exposure to screens in children makes them miss out on important opportunities. In general, it may interfere with the following:
- Social and communicative development (interaction with other people)
- Motor skills, promoting a sedentary lifestyle
- Development of close ties with people
- Learning and emotional regulation
When children look at screens, they may lose the ability to master interpersonal, motor and communication skills, as mentioned in the mentioned study.
Therefore, this leads us to a very serious conclusion: O excessive exposure to screens affects children’s development at all levels. That is, it can make them less intelligent, less skilled and less competent than children who use them rationally and responsibly.
Socioeconomic and gender variables
According to the study, girls tend to spend less time in front of the screens and tend to get better scores than boys, on the 5 domains we mentioned.
On the other hand, the drastic decline in group play, which until recently was the main source of reinforcement and social-emotional learning in children, is worrying. Too much screen time eliminates individual play and group play for children.
In addition, another important finding of the study is that preschool children who were read to more, exercised more, slept more, or had parents with lower levels of depression did much better.
It also showed that people at the lowest socioeconomic level spent the most screen time. Therefore, children in these populations were the most affected.
Children experience consequences from excessive exposure to screens
Although researchers in the last decade have shown scientific evidence that there are harmful consequences of excessive exposure to screens in children, this study has shown important results. For the first time, a large study, with 2400 subjects, shows a direct relationship between screens and poorer development.
