Young children and parents are spending more time on computer tablets and smartphones.
NewsCenter 7 consumer reporter Rachel Murray looks at how all the screen time can impact toddlers’ development.
It’s not just the time a child spends with technology, but the time moms and dads spend on their devices, that can delay a child’s development and limit language skills.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children younger than 2 stay screen-free. But statistics show it’s not happening.
One-third of very young children — including babies as young as 6 months — are using tablets and smartphones, with one-quarter of 2-year-olds using devices for two hours a day, according to research from Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
“We are finding that children between the ages of 8 (months) and 16 months that use technology like tables and phones have less vocabulary skills than those that do not,” said Phyllis Throckmorton, speech language pathologist at Dayton Children’s Hospital.
Studies show adults are using devices for three hours a day. For parents, this means less time that is spent interacting with their children, which also can hurt a child’s development, Throckmorton said.
“Put down the tablet and interact with your child, talk to your child, play with them. I think parents are missing out sometimes on that social interaction,” she said.
Two-year-old Jaxson doesn’t express much interest in tablets and smartphones, which his mother, Michelle Cochran of Kettering, said is likely due to the example she sets at home.
“My husband and I, we do have a tablet in our home but I guess we are not on it that much, either,” she said.