Our study reveals that children's screen use patterns are similar to those of their parents. Child language researchers emphasize the importance of everyday interactions with adults in early language development, where children are actively involved. At the same time, we know that all family members tend to their screen devices. Because time is finite, we need to find out how this fierce competition between face-to-face interaction and screen time affects child language development.
The study identified three distinct family screen use profiles: low, moderate, and high users. These profiles differed not only in screen time but also in parental education levels and children's language skills. Children from families with low screen use tended to have higher vocabulary and grammatical scores compared to those from high-use families.
Higher total screen time for children contributes to poorer vocabulary and grammatical skills. None of the screen-based activities that children or parents engaged in had a positive impact on language skills, including viewing screens together and socializing time.
Playing video games had a negative association with children's language skills, regardless of whether it was the child, mother, or father doing the gaming. This suggests that the type of screen activity matters just as much as the amount of time spent staring at screens.
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