Appolonia Adeyemi 
An extensive study to understand how screen time affects toddlers’ language development has found that more screen exposure was linked to lower lexical density and delayed language milestone progress.
Results of the study are published in the journal ‘PLOS ONE’. The research team includes scientists from over 20 nations. Spanning from August 2021 until March 2023, the study explored the lives of 1,878 toddlers between the ages of 12 to 48 months across Latin America.
The experts investigated how the children interacted with smartphones and other devices and analysed how screen time impacted the developmental progress of the toddlers.
“Descriptive studies show that children use screens before two years of age for an average of one hour a day or more,” wrote the researchers.
“This reported use goes against the recommendations of paediatric societies, which advise against screen use for children under two years and suggests shared use with parents after two years.”
The analysis revealed that the young children most often engaged with television and smartphones. The study confirmed that toddlers’ daily screen exposure often exceeds one hour, with TV and back – ground TV serving as the primary sources.
