Parental screen time, particularly scrolling on smartphones, may have a more significant impact on a child's language development than the child's own device use, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics. The research, conducted by scientists at the University of Oslo, followed 747 Norwegian children from age five to eight.
The study found that for children aged five to seven, parental phone use was associated with slower vocabulary development. For every additional hour a parent spent on their phone daily, children's vocabulary development slowed. Children whose parents spent approximately four hours per day on their phones scored about 2.5 points lower on language tests compared to those whose parents used their phones for about one hour a day.
Researchers observed that children who had their own tablets or phones at the start of the study, around 43% of the group, also demonstrated lower language scores initially. However, these differences in scores related to the children's own device ownership diminished by the time they reached age seven.
According to Dr. Junyi Yang, the study's first author, smartphones can be "attention disrupters." This disruption can affect children's word learning and language development, as it may reduce opportunities for responsive parent-child interactions. The study noted that increased parental screen time often correlated with higher screen time for their children.
The findings suggest that higher overall screen engagement within families might displace valuable interactions such as shared reading and storytelling, which are crucial for promoting word learning. Approximately 90% of brain growth occurs before the age of five, highlighting the critical nature of early developmental stages.
This research follows previous findings, including a January study indicating that two-year-olds with high screen use, around five hours daily, could say significantly fewer words than those using screens for less than an hour. The World Health Organization recommends limiting screen time for children aged two to four to a maximum of one hour per day. The current study highlights that parental behavior, specifically their engagement with smartphones, may play a substantial role in a child's cognitive and linguistic development during formative years.