The Pennsylvania Key’s latest health trend report focuses on screen time and digital media use in early childhood and provides tips for caregivers on how to regulate it.

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The report notes that screen time is now an integral part of daily activities for many families, and that it’s common for young children to use smartphones, tablets, interactive content, short-form videos, and AI-assisted learning apps.

By age 2, The Pennsylvania Key writes, four in 10 children have their own tablet and, by age 4, more than half do. Overall, about 47% of children under age 8 have their own tablet device.

Parent surveys show that one in five families use mobile devices to help manage their children’s bedtime routines, mealtimes, and emotional regulation. 

Impacts

Young children learn best from real-world interactions, so heavy solo screen use can affect their developing language and social skills, depending on how much time they spend daily on digital media and how adults use screens to calm or entertain them, the report notes.

Some concerns stemming from the misuse of digital media in young children include:

• Delays in language, thinking, and social skills
• Slower vocabulary growth and conversational skills
• Fewer face-to-face interactions, which lead to less spent time learning with loved ones, less reading, less independent play, and less time moving around and for exploration
• Overreliance on screens for emotional regulation
• Fewer opportunities to develop patience and self-control

A study published in Developmental Psychology found that using digital devices to calm or district very young children was linked to increased behavioral problems over time. Rapidly changing video content and highly stimulating media can be challenging to young children’s sustained attention and self-regulation.

The report also references a surgeon general’s advisory that screen exposure can also be disruptive to healthy sleep, which is fundamental to learning, mood behavior, physical health, and overall development.

Tips in the article include:

• Promote balanced media use, such as high-quality educational content or video chatting with relatives.
• Keep picture books for story time because they help children to connect the words to the pictures on the page.
• Look for these qualities when evaluating digital apps: active, engaging, meaningful to the child, iterative, socially interactive, and joyful to experience.
• Monitor young children’s chatbot interactions; until AI product developers are clearer about labeling what a product is and what it provides, caregivers should take care to guide children to understand AI tools and their limitations as social partners.
• Model healthy screening habits – while it may be hard to keep phones completely out of sight, carve out some boundaries by encouraging screen-free routines (at the kitchen table, for example) and model a consistent and united front when managing digital technology for children. 

For more information and additional tips, read The Pennsylvania Key’s health trends report.