Screen time and children — The effect on brain and development

Screen time and children —The effect on brain and development

Recent research confirms that the first five years are particularly important for the development of the child's brain, and the first three years are the most critical in shaping the child's brain architecture. Early experiences provide the base for the brain's organizational development and functioning throughout life. They have a direct impact on how children develop learning skills as well as social and emotional abilities.

In today’s time, as I am writing this or you are reading this blog, both are using the screen time. We simply cannot go back to the old times and simply say ‘NO’ to the video screen.But all of us are worried and think what will be the result?

I think most of us do need to use screen some way. But in any case, many of us are not sure of the effects it may have on the infant & kids. How much of time is OK and what content is OK?

In past ten years, a lot of research has been done. Few of the outcomes of the TV or the iPad or the computer game termed “screen time”. I will try to write the conclusion of the research in simple words (Conducted by https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov )

A landmark 2010 study found that babies, 6 months old, when exposed to screen time, will have less cognitive development by the time they are  14 months old.

Let me go ahead and give you few specifics:

Cognitive development or simply IQ

1. Babies that had 60 minutes of screen time exposure by 6 months of age, scored roughly one-third lower on tests of their cognitive and language skills 8 months later as compared to kids who were not exposed to the screen time.
2. Other studies have supported this finding. It simply says that IQ or intelligence of the child reduces by ⅓ .It has no correlation to parental income or education.

The effect of screen time on the Language development

1. For babies age 8 to 16 months, studies have shown each hour of viewing baby-aimed videos is associated with a decrease in the language development.
2. In fact, two hours or more of screen time a day for babies under 12 months made them six times more likely to have a language delay later.

The reason is that lower time of verbal interaction between the parents( grandparents etc.) and child.

The effect of screen time on the Physical development.

• There has been an exponential increase in the number of children with myopia — nearsightedness — in the past few decades. We may blame screen time but it does not hold any scientific evidence. However, screen time replaces outdoor activities — and a lack of sunlight seems to be the key link behind it around the world.
• Prolonged screen time is linked to increased risk of obesity as the screen time increases.

The reason is simple. The screen time is a physically passive time.The child does see sunlight and does not exercise the body.

The effects of screen time on social/emotional development

• For toddlers to preschoolers, most of their learning is picked up by the unwritten patterns of social interaction and emotional management. This enables them to learn social skills.
• The digital media-watching for toddlers (especially if it’s toddler-aimed entertainment) show more frequent physical aggression, disobeying rules, cheating, stealing, and destruction.
• The toddlers are smart. They can act out behavior — Children can make a lot of fuss or throws tantrums so that the parents are forced to use the screen. This can become a self-perpetuating cycle, as often, parents use digital devices the child learns to use it in future.

The reason is,

• Small children’s inability yet to transfer the lessons of the screen (assuming there are any) to real-world understanding, this critical social and emotional development don’t happen.
• The parent-child interaction and free play that teach these skills are spent in front of a screen.

We must realize the social skills are key to your success not only in career but also your social life. This is key to happiness in the life of a person.

The research data has proved that the person talking/observing/playing a game with the same content with toddlers, face-to-face learns a lot more. This lack of learning using video is called termed as “Video deficit”.

An event pushed me into reading the research on this aspect. I was surprised to know this phenomenon has a term called ‘Video Deficit’ and sharing an event with you. Observing, “Video deficit” was my personal experience.

In one of the Peppa pig serials, the concept of the sailboat is given in very simple way explaining the effect of the wind on the sailboat. I asked my granddaughter a few questions and realized she did not get the concept of it, at all. But just after a few days, we went to a seashore and she saw people sailing on the sailboats. It took a few moments for a three-year-old to understand the why the sailboats were sailing! It is simple, she felt the rush of wind all the time while walking on the beach.

I can count a few more added advantages. She saw and learned about many of the flora fauna and was very tired, hungry so she ate well and slept well. What a respite it was!