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What Parents Need to Know About Screen Time and Language Development

Author/s: 
Lillian E. Sutton, Lindsay A. Thompson

Early childhood exposure to screen time is becoming more common as mobile devices and televisions are part of most households. That is the same time when children, especially those in their first 3 years, are having an explosion of language and acquiring their speech and language skills. Screen time, especially on mobile devices, can be useful to keep children entertained at home and on the go. However, children who have more screen time may have fewer chances to talk with others, affecting their speech and language development. Current guidelines recommend that children younger than 18 months should not have any screen exposure, and children aged 2 to 5 years should be limited to 1 hour of screen time per day.

Current studies show that screen time keeps children from hearing adult words. Children and parents both vocalize or talk less when children engage with screens. There are also fewer back-and-forth conversations between children and caregivers. Spending more time with screens, even background television, may result in reductions in speech. Having a language-rich home environment promotes strong language skills, school readiness, and healthy brain development. If a child does engage with screens, there are ways to support speech development. Some ways to watch and use screens are better than others.

Keywords 
screen time Mobile devices Home Environment Language Development hearing Attention span

What Parents Know Matters: Parental Knowledge at Birth Predicts Caregiving Behaviors at 9 Months

Author/s: 
Leung, C.Y., Suskind, D.L.

Objective

To examine the mediating role of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents' knowledge of early cognitive and language development at the first postpartum visit in the relation between education and caregiving behaviors at 9 months.

Study design

Parental knowledge was assessed at the 1-week newborn visit (n = 468); anticipatory guidance received and desired at 1-month (n = 212) and 6-month (n = 191) visits were reported; and caregiving behaviors toward infants during a teaching task were observed at 9-month visit (n = 173).

Results

We found substantial variation in knowledge and caregiving behaviors. Parents who had more knowledge of infant development at 1 week were more likely to respond to cues (r = 0.18; P < .05) and foster social-emotional (r = 0.17; P < .05) and cognitive growth (r = 0.20; P < .05) at 9 months. Importantly, the indirect effect of education on cognitive growth fostering at 9 months through knowledge at 1 week was significant, controlling for primary language and number of other children in the home (infancy: β = 0.06; B = 0.07; SE = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.007-0.165; early childhood: β = 0.04; B = 0.06; SE = 0.03; 95% CI, 0.008-0.152). Open-ended responses indicated that anticipatory guidance in the first 6 months focused on infant physical growth; however, parents did not request additional anticipatory guidance from their pediatricians.

Conclusions

This study sheds light on the importance of promoting parental knowledge about cognitive and language development to foster parental cognitive stimulations and language inputs during the first year of life. This study highlights the important role of anticipatory guidance on cognitive and language development during the earliest well-child visits and the need to better understand parental baseline knowledge to tailor anticipatory guidance to the family strengths and needs.

Keywords 
cognitive development infant

What Parents Know Matters: Parental Knowledge at Birth Predicts Caregiving Behaviors at 9 Months

Author/s: 
Leung, C.Y., Suskind, D.L.

Objective

To examine the mediating role of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents' knowledge of early cognitive and language development at the first postpartum visit in the relation between education and caregiving behaviors at 9 months.

Study design

Parental knowledge was assessed at the 1-week newborn visit (n = 468); anticipatory guidance received and desired at 1-month (n = 212) and 6-month (n = 191) visits were reported; and caregiving behaviors toward infants during a teaching task were observed at 9-month visit (n = 173).

Results

We found substantial variation in knowledge and caregiving behaviors. Parents who had more knowledge of infant development at 1 week were more likely to respond to cues (r = 0.18; P < .05) and foster social-emotional (r = 0.17; P < .05) and cognitive growth (r = 0.20; P < .05) at 9 months. Importantly, the indirect effect of education on cognitive growth fostering at 9 months through knowledge at 1 week was significant, controlling for primary language and number of other children in the home (infancy: β = 0.06; B = 0.07; SE = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.007-0.165; early childhood: β = 0.04; B = 0.06; SE = 0.03; 95% CI, 0.008-0.152). Open-ended responses indicated that anticipatory guidance in the first 6 months focused on infant physical growth; however, parents did not request additional anticipatory guidance from their pediatricians.

Conclusions

This study sheds light on the importance of promoting parental knowledge about cognitive and language development to foster parental cognitive stimulations and language inputs during the first year of life. This study highlights the important role of anticipatory guidance on cognitive and language development during the earliest well-child visits and the need to better understand parental baseline knowledge to tailor anticipatory guidance to the family strengths and needs.

Keywords 
cognitive development infant
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