A groundbreaking study has found that the amount of time children spend in front of screens is costing them the opportunity to hear more than 1,000 words spoken by adults each day, leading to a decline in their language skills.
According to The Guardian, the study tracked 220 Australian families over two years to measure the relationship between screen use and language development in children.
Families recorded all the sounds surrounding their children for 16 hours a day using advanced speech recognition technology. This process was repeated every six months.
The technology also captured electronic noise, which researchers used to calculate screen time.
The findings revealed that young children's exposure to screens, including TVs and smartphones, led to a decline in their language skills, particularly evident by the age of three.
For every additional minute spent in front of screens, three-year-olds were found to hear seven fewer words and spoke five fewer words themselves.
The average three-year-old was exposed to screens for two hours and 52 minutes daily. Researchers estimated this resulted in children being deprived of hearing 1,139 words spoken by adults every day and reduced the number of words these children spoke by approximately 843 words.
Lead researcher Dr. Mary Brouch from the Telethon Kids Institute stated, "A home environment rich in language is crucial in supporting the language development of infants and young children."
She added that while some children's educational programs are designed to help improve language skills, very young children may struggle to apply the content of these programs in their own lives.
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