Screen use and child development: How to optimize your toddler’s engagement with screen-based media

In today’s digital world, most children are introduced to screens like television, tablets, e-readers and mobile phones before their first birthday. Screens have turned into accessible parental assistants serving as pacifiers, distractors, entertainers, and educators. In Canada, over 80% of young children consume screen media for 1 hour per day or more, surpassing the screen time recommendations of the Canadian Pediatric Society. Complete abstinence or severely restricted screen time doesn’t seem attainable for young children. But does it follow that regular screen time in young children is cause for concern? The short answer to this question is not necessarily.

Researchers have long been investigating whether using screens impacts young children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, with no definitive answers. Results are often contradictory, finding risks and benefits. For example, pre-schoolers who started watching TV at younger ages did worse on problem solving tasks, but were rated as having better school readiness.

One problem is that most research has only measured how much time children spend using screens, without also considering important features like the kind of device (tablet or TV), the media engaged with (video or play), the content consumed (educational or recreational), and many other factors. The good news is that researchers have started taking a “quality over quantity” perspective, lessening their grip on screen time and focusing on the different ways in which young children interact with screens. An early insight from this line of work is that children had richer vocabularies if their screen time was primarily educational.

Overall, we are coming to understand that not all screen use is equal, and healthy screen time can be actively managed by parents and caregivers. As your child’s screen gatekeeper, consider the following before providing screen-based technology to them:

Co-viewing

One of the most important things you can do when your young child is using screens is to join them. Caregivers can be actively present by commenting, discussing, and re-teaching the content viewed on screens. Younger children have trouble relating virtual information to the real world, so discussing what your child is watching while they watch it creates opportunities for retrieval, repetition, and new learning. What’s more, this prompts verbal interactions full of feedback cues and the potential for modelling that, in turn, facilitate psychosocial development.

Technoference

Researchers advise against unintentional screen use that may disrupt off-screen activities, like when a television is running in the background – a phenomenon known as technoference. Research shows that toddlers tend to engage in less complex and shorter play with background television, possibly because their attention gets swayed back and forth between real-world play and the TV.

Type of content

Toddlers seem to benefit the most from interactive, age-appropriate screen media. This is especially true for educational, well-paced, interactive content with a cohesive narrative that leaves enough time for information processing. Interactive media provides feedback and encourages repetition, which facilitate learning. In one study, toddlers were more successful in learning new words during a video call compared to a non-interactive video training.

Necessity

Screen use may be beneficial in some cases and inevitable in others, so caregivers need to balance the trade-offs between screen time and other off-screen activities, including parent-child interactions. Screen time is harder to limit once it becomes a norm. For example, using screens as a primary strategy for managing emotional outbursts in toddlers risks developing screen dependence and problematic screen use later in life. It hinders children’s ability to learn more productive emotion regulation strategies that typically emerge in parent-child interactions during emotional episodes.

Like screen use, not all families are equal. What works for one family might not meet the needs of another family. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to consider these recommendations and to make decisions about their children’s screen time that balance the costs and benefits in a way that fits their family best.

Blog post written by Yulia Gmiro

Infographic by Yulia Gmiro