Young Children’s Use of Smartphones and Tablets

Radesky, Jenny; Weeks, Heidi M.; Ball, Rosa; Schaller, Alexandria; Yeo, S.; Durnez, Joke; Tamayo-Rios, Matthew; Epstein, Mollie; Kirkorian, Heather L.; Coyne, Sarah M.; Barr, Rachel

doi:10.1542/peds.2019-3518

Cited by 133 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Another limitation of the study is to use questionnaires aimed at parents. Further studies would be needed to assess language and communication skills through standardized direct tests [ 49 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Devices Use and Language Skills in Children between 8 and 36 Month

et al. 2020

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Background: Over the past decade, the use of digital tools has grown and research evidence suggests that traditional media and new media offer both benefits and health risks for young children. The abilities to understand and use language represent two of the most important competencies developed during the first 3 years of life through the interaction of the child with people, objects, events, and other environmental factors. The main goal of our study is to evaluate the relationship between digital devices use and language abilities in children between 8 and 36 month, also considering the influence of several factors. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study on digital devices use and language abilities in260 children (140 males = 54%) aged between 8 and 36 months (mean = 23.5 ± 7.18 months). All the parents completed a self-report questionnaire investigating the use of digital devices by their children, and a standardized questionnaire for the assessment of language skills (MacArthur-Bates). Linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the relation between different variables. Subsequent moderation analysis were performed to verify the influence of other factors. Results: We found a statistically significant negative relation between the total daily time of exposure to digital devices and the Actions and Gestures Quotient (ß = −0.397) in children between 8 and 17 months, and between the total daily time of exposure to digital devices and Lexical Quotient (ß = −0.224) in children between 18 and 36 months. Gender, level of education/job of parents, modality of use/content of digital device did not significantly affect the result of the regression analysis. Conclusion: In our study we found that a longer time of exposure to digital devices was related to lower mimic-gestural skills in children from 8–17 months and to lower language skills in children between 18 and 36 months, regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, content, and modality of use. Further studies are needed to confirm and better understand this relation, but parents and pediatricians are advised to limit the use of digital devices by children and encourage the social interaction to support the learning of language and communication skills in this age group.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Devices Use and Language Skills in Children between 8 and 36 Month

et al. 2020

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“…Indeed, research has found that by age 4 years, between one-third and three-quarters of children have access to their own mobile device (Kabali et al, 2015;Radesky et al, 2020;Rideout, 2017). Additionally, the options or types of media use have expanded to this younger demographic, with an explosion of available streaming content.…”

Section: Current Digital Media Use In Early-middle Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The growth of mobile device access and ownership has yielded many opportunities and challenges for raising healthy digital media consumers. Children at younger ages are being given their first mobile devices, such as Tablets and Smartphones, using them for several hours per day (Radesky et al, 2020). Mobile device design has allowed more independent use (i.e., through touchscreens and voice commands), and hundreds of thousands of apps and platforms are now marketed to young children for educational or entertainment purposes (Radesky et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children at younger ages are being given their first mobile devices, such as Tablets and Smartphones, using them for several hours per day (Radesky et al, 2020). Mobile device design has allowed more independent use (i.e., through touchscreens and voice commands), and hundreds of thousands of apps and platforms are now marketed to young children for educational or entertainment purposes (Radesky et al, 2020). Many of these apps and platforms collect persistent identifiers to improve marketing to youth (Zhao et al, 2020), or are designed with engagement‐promoting persuasive design features that children may not be able to resist.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interactional theory of childhood problematic media use

Domoff

Borgen

Radesky

2020

Human Behav and Emerg Tech

Self Cite

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The growth of mobile device access and ownership has yielded many opportunities and challenges for raising healthy digital media consumers. As adoption of mobile and internet-connected devices has increased among children, concerns for healthy child development have been expressed regarding excessive or problematic use. Although much theoretical and empirical work has been conducted evaluating adolescents' and adults' risks for dependence on various screen media (e.g., Gaming Disorder, Internet Addiction), little theoretical consideration has been expounded regarding the etiology and maintenance of problematic media use earlier in childhood (i.e., under age 12 years). The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework through which to investigate problematic media use in early childhood. Our theory, the Interactional Theory of Childhood Problematic Media Use (IT-CPU) merges developmental and clinical psychology theories, with communication and humancomputer interaction perspectives. We outline distal and proximal factors that we hypothesize contribute to the development of problematic media use in childhood, and emphasize maintaining factors that could be targets for intervention. Finally, we provide recommendations for an interdisciplinary research agenda to test our proposed theory and inform experimental trials to prevent and treat childhood problematic media use.

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“…Another limitation of the study is to use indirect questionnaires aimed at parents. Further studies would be needed, to assess language and communication skills through standardized direct tests [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Devices Use and Language Skills in Children Between 8-36 Month

Operto¹,

Pastorino²,

Marciano³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Over the past decade, the use of digital tools has grown and research evidence suggests that traditional media and new media offer both benefits and health risks for young children. The abilities to understand and use language represent two of the most important competencies developed during the first 3 years of life through the interaction of the child with people, objects, events, and other environmental factors. The main goal of our study is to evaluate the relationship between digital devices use and language abilities in children between 8-36 month, considering also the influence of several variables. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study on 260 healthy children (140 males = 54%) aged between 8-36 months (mean=23.5±7.18 months). All the parents completed a self-report questionnaire investigating the use of digital devices by their children, and a standardized questionnaire for the assessment of language skills (MacArthur). Multiple linear regression was used to evaluate the relationship between different variables. Subsequent moderation analysis were performed to verify the influence of other factors. Results: W found a statistically significant negative correlation between the total daily time of exposure to digital devices and the Actions and Gestures Quotient (ß=-0.397) in children between 8-17 months, and between the total daily time of exposure to digital devices and Language Quotient (ß=-0.224) in children between 18-36 months. Sex, level of education/job of parents, modality of use/content of digital device do not significantly affect these relationships. Conclusion: In our study we found that a longer time of exposure to digital devices was related to lower mimic-gestural skills in children from 8-17 months and to lower language skills in children between 18-36 months, regardless of age, sex, socio-economic status, content and modality of use. Further studies are needed to confirm and better understand this relationship, but parents and pediatricians are advised to limit the use of digital devices by children and encourage the social interaction to support the learning of language and communication skills in this age group.

show abstract

Young Children’s Use of Smartphones and Tablets

Cited by 133 publications

References 15 publications

Digital Devices Use and Language Skills in Children between 8 and 36 Month

Digital Devices Use and Language Skills in Children between 8 and 36 Month

Interactional theory of childhood problematic media use

Digital Devices Use and Language Skills in Children Between 8-36 Month

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