Investigating the association between children’s screen media exposure and vocabulary size in the UK

Abstract

Children are growing up in a digital age with increasing exposure to television and touchscreen devices. We tested whether exposure to screen media is associated with children's early language development. One hundred and thirty-one highly educated caregivers of UK children aged 6-36 months completed a media exposure questionnaire and vocabulary measure. 99% of children were read to daily, 82% watched television, and 49% used mobile touchscreen devices daily. Regression analyses revealed that time spent reading positively predicted vocabulary comprehension and production scores at 6-18 months, but time spent engaging with television or mobile touchscreen devices was not associated with vocabulary scores. Critically, correlations revealed that time spent reading or engaging with other non-screen activities was not offset by time spent engaging with television or mobile touchscreen devices. Thus, there was no evidence to suggest that screen media exposure adversely influenced vocabulary size in our sample of highly educated families with moderate media use. Children grow up surrounded by media including books, television, and more recently, mobile touchscreen devices. In a 2013 survey, television was the most popular medium with 31% of 0-2-year-old and 67% of 2-4-year-old American children watching television at least once a day for a total 44 and 64 min a day, respectively (Rideout, 2013). However, mobile touchscreen use among children appears to be increasing. In 2013 in the US, 6% of children under the age of 2 years were using mobile touchscreen devices, for 2 min per day on average (Rideout, 2013). In 2015 in France, 21% of children under the age of 2 years were using mobile touchscreen devices (Cristia & Seidl, 2015). On top of screen media exposure, children in the US under the age of 2 years also spend on average 19 min per day reading, and children aged 2-4 years spend around 29 min reading per day (Rideout, 2013). Time spent engaging with screen media impacts parent-child interactions. There is some evidence that screen time displaces time spent interacting with parents or doing other activities between 0 and 2 years of age (Vandewater, Bickham, & Lee, 2006). Specifically, Vandewater et al. (2006) found that children interacted with parents 52 mins less for each hour of time spent

Benefits and damages of the use of touchscreen devices for the development and behavior of children under 5 years old—a systematic review

“…Vatalaro et al ( 2018 ) demonstrated the benefits of using a scaffolding-like vocabulary application rather than any open-ended vocabulary application. Taylor et al ( 2018 ) suggest that teaching and reading activities act as a beneficial agent for learning. These authors also devalue the screen time where they did not find benefits or damages in their use.…”

“…The third limitation of some studies is the selected methodology and the causality inference, by the use of observational and cross-sectorial studies instead of experimental and longitudinal methods (Mendelsohn et al, 2010 ; Papadakis et al, 2018 ; Tansriratanawong et al, 2017 ; Taylor et al, 2018 ; Tomopoulos et al, 2007 ; Vatalaro et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Lastly, in some studies, the content of programs or media applications have not been analyzed, since it is an important variable in children learning or behavior (Taylor et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Despite the above recommendations, the use of technology among children is common. Taylor, Monaghana, and Westermanna ( 2018 ) pointed out that screen media exposure in children under the age of 3 is high, instead of completing educational activities. Approximately half of the 2-year-old population access the Internet occasionally, increasing this number, frequency, and autonomy with their age (Howe et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Approximately half of the 2-year-old population access the Internet occasionally, increasing this number, frequency, and autonomy with their age (Howe et al, 2017 ). Also, children under the age of 2 frequently use electronic devices (Palha et al, 2019 ; Taylor et al, 2018 ). Despite the fact that television is the most widely used electronic device (Adisak, Chiranuwat, Pongtong, & Sakda Arj-Ong, 2018 ; Ponte et al, 2017 ), touchscreen devices are increasingly used by children (Ponte et al, 2017 ).…”