Written by Professor Ying Wang

Translated by Professor Stella Christie, Jinyun Lyu, and Shuai Shao

As parents, we can't help to wonder when we see our little ones who can't yet use spoons properly, are at ease playing with mobile phones and tablets! Kids just seem to love technology gadgets and are willing to spend hours on them. But as parents, we probably have that gnawing thought seeing our little ones interacting with the screens: is this helping or harming for children's development?

Like anything in life, the answer is: it depends. Some studies have indeed found correlations between video watching and/or video game time with 6 months - 2 years' language learning: the longer children spend time on mobile phones, the more likely are they to experience language delay (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). For this reason, The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that:

1) Infants younger than 18 months should not interact with any electronic devices except when they video chat with family members.

2) For children over 18 months, parents are suggested to choose high-quality video programs and watch with their children to help them understand the conversations and contents.

3) For older children who can understand and watch videos on their own, it may be best to limit their watching time to one hour a day.

But what exactly are the reasons behind screen time and delayed language development? For one, cognitively, infants are not yet able to understand the constantly changing audiovisual information. They may "like" it—their eyes are glued to the screen, they are quiet and super attentive—but they do not process the story line. So, while engaging, there is no learning. This is just like when you look at Arabic text—it is fascinating, but you don't get anything because you don't understand it! Or imagine that you're seeing a light show where lights of all colors blast at you. You're fascinated by the light show, but you clearly won't learn anything from it. And you will probably experience a numbing feeling if you watch a light show for hours on end—that's how it is for babies watching TV for a long time.

But not all screen time is bad for babies. Video chat with relatives is actually a great learning time for infants! This is because in video chat there is real social communication and contingency—people on the screen respond to what the child says or does. This responsive interaction is the big thing that's missing from watching cartoons—no matter how engaging videos are, they never respond to your child's reaction. It's a one-way street.

Children acquire language through social interactions (Tomasello, 1992). When they spend a lot of time on electronic devices, this important social interaction time is curtailed. Instead of talking to Mom and Dad, reading storybooks, singing, or playing together, screen-time kids just spend time with, well, TV, not with real people. This habit is particularly impactful in the first two years of life—the most sensitive period for learning language, the time when our brain develops the most. Two years go by quickly; choose well how you want your child to spend this time.

Dr. John Medina (an authoritative neuroscientist in the United States) believes that for children under three years, watching TV for more than two hours per day can increase attentional problems by 20% at the age of 6 or 7 years (Medina, 2014). There are many reasons why video watching habit may lead to attentional problems, but one big reason is that video watching is passive. When watching videos, children are mostly receiving, rather than engaging, interacting, and thinking.

Is reading really better than watching? Here's an adapted analogy from Nicholas Carr, a well-known American science writer: reading books is like diving while watching TV/videos is like water skiing. Reading is like diving as you are totally immersed in the water and you move slowly, allowing you to contemplate what you see. In contrast, watching TV/online video is like water skiing: you take the sea quickly but passively while something else is pulling you along. Indeed, empirical research shows that although videos provide interesting information, traditional reading promotes children's self-reflection, critical thinking, problem-solving ability, and vocabulary acquisition(Patterson, 2002).

At this point you're probably thinking, this is all may be good in theory, but how could a child of this day and age not watch TV? And let's be honest here, don't we all need the help of electronic screen to give ourselves a few minutes to breathe?! Surely a few hours of watching Peppa Pig can't do much harm!—my child seems so happy watching it!

True, screen time can serve as that much-needed help for parents. We can't attend to our children all the time, and even the most dedicated Mom and Dad need some break. After all, stressed and overtired parents will not have the energy to sing or read books together with their kids. As I explained here, what's potentially most damaging is not the TV-watching per se, but the lost human interaction and social learning that it replaces. Once we understand this, there are some steps we can take to make screen time not harmful, and in some cases even beneficial.

1) Set a time limit for your child. This is the most important and difficult point. It is difficult for children to accept a sudden stop when the video is continuously playing from one episode to another. Hence, advanced notice is very important. Pause the video when there are five minutes left and tell the child that there are five minutes left—put on a kind, but firm tone when you do this. When there are three minutes left, remind her again, and again at the last one minute. Finally tell your child, "Time is up, can you help Mom turn off the computer?" It's crucial for the child to feel that she's doing it on her own initiative rather than being forced to do it. Although such a young child does not have the concept of 3 minutes or 5 minutes, do not allow her to extend beyond the agreed time. Gradually, she will feel the length of time, and will be able to accept the rule "when the time comes, turn it off."

2) Help children to choose appropriate videos. Whether it's animation, sports, or documentary, it's better to choose ones with clear pronunciation, simple plot, and related to real life. This way young children have better opportunity to engage with the content of the video, rather than passively staring at the screen.

3) Watch together! Watching too much TV can delay language development because it replaces the much-needed social interactions for learning. But what if you watch together with your child? If you engage your child—asking him (or her) what he is seeing, what he does or doesn't understand—TV watching can actually be an active learning experience. After TV watching, active interaction with parents can help children to connect the video content with real life. For example, even though young children may not be able to describe clearly the story plot, he may be able to say at least a few words related to the plot (such as pancake, seahorse, daddy, drive). This in turn can help vocabulary development. Interacting with parents while watching TV can also make the child feel that he is sharing his happiness and knowledge. It feels great for little Dou Dou to tell Mommy that the pig is eating a pancake! Sharing emotion and knowledge creates a great atmosphere for bonding and learning.

4) Consider reading the original books corresponding to the video animation. Telling stories before watching videos can help children understand more content, help them experience more fun, and gradually guide children back to reading activities and the real world.

But when all is said and done, know that YOU are the most fun thing in your child's life. Don't replace yourself with a television set.

References：

Chonchaiya, W., & Pruksananonda, C. (2008). Television viewing associates with delayed language development. Acta Paediatrica, International Journal of Paediatrics, 97(7), 977–982. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00831.x

Medina, J. (2014). Brain rules for baby, Updated and expanded: How to raise a smart and happy child from zero to five. Pear Press.

Patterson, J. L. (2002). Relationships of expressive vocabulary to frequency of reading and television experience among bilingual toddlers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 23(4), 493–508. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716402004010

Tomasello, M. (1992). The social bases of language acquisition. Social Development, 1(1), 67–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1992.tb00135.x