The first five years of a child’s life are the most important in their development, as it is during this time that they learn to walk, talk, think, and interact with others.
Because this is a very sensitive period, introducing screens into a child's life can have significant effects.
For this reason, experts recommend that parents limit screen time for children under five to one hour a day, while children aged two and younger should avoid screens altogether, except for video calls with the family.
But reality points in a different direction, as tablets and phones have become part of young people's lives, and daily screen time exceeds the recommended amount.
A report by the Early Childhood Screen Time Advisory Group stated: "Some evidence has linked large amounts of screen time to adverse effects on children's health and development, including social, emotional, linguistic and brain development, sleep, vision and healthy weight. The problem of screen use becomes particularly serious when it replaces sleep, physical activity, parent-child interaction, creative play, household routines, real-life exploration or learning."
Here we reveal the ways that excessive screen time can harm your child's health:
Spending too much time in front of screens may delay speech development in young children.
Research has found that children who use screens the most start speaking later and have a smaller vocabulary compared to their peers.
A recent study published in January also revealed that a two-year-old who spends five hours a day on screens can pronounce far fewer words than a child who spends only 44 minutes.
The children who used screens the most pronounced 53% of the test words, while those who used them the least pronounced 65%.
A study from the University of Adelaide also indicated that a child obsessed with technology may miss hearing 1,100 words a day due to a lack of conversations with their parents.
Parents may resort to putting their angry child in front of a screen to calm him down temporarily, but this strategy may backfire in the long run.
A Canadian study of 315 children found that 3.5-year-olds who spent more time on tablets were more likely to experience anger and frustration a year later. Specifically, each additional hour and 15 minutes above the average daily screen time was associated with a 22% increase in subsequent temper tantrums. Experts suggest that "highly stimulating content," such as bright colors and fast-paced scenes, may be the culprit.
Experts advise that content suitable for children should be slow and quiet, with few characters and stillFifth: Lack of sleep
The greatest harm of screen time comes from its encouragement of sedentary behavior, as children spend long hours sitting without moving. This inactivity is directly linked to weight gain and obesity, especially in children.
Childhood obesity can greatly increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in li
Spending long hours staring at a screen can negatively impact a child's eye health in the long run. A 2021 research review found thaDry eyes and temporary vision loss: How to protect your eyes when using screen
Prolonged exposure to screens at an early age may alter the way a child's ability to concentrate and pay attention develops.
Experts specifically warn against "short, fast-paced videos," which are believed to negatively impact children's attention spans. These videos feature rapidly changing scenes and highly stimulating content, potentially leading to a child's brain becoming easily distracted and having difficulty concentrating for extended periods. Given the limited evidence, the report recommends a precautionary approach: avoiding this type of content altogether for young children and opting instead for slower, more repetitive, and predictable contentIn conclusion, experts emphasize that screen time becomes a real problem when it replaces essential activities for a child's development, such as sleep, creative play, physical activity, and genuine interaction with parents. Therefore, the solution isn't to ban screens entirely, but rather to use them cautiously and in limited quantities, choosing calm and age-appropriate content. The most important point is that screen time should be a supplementary activity, not a replacement for play, movement, and conversation with the child. Only in this way can a balance be struck between the benefits of technology and its risks to children's health and developmentt children who used computers the most were more likely to develop myopia (nearsightedness). While researchers couldn't definitively prove that screens directly cause myopia, the figures are concerning.
Blue light emitted from phone and tablet screens can disrupt children's natural sleep cycle.
This light can disrupt the body's biological clock, making sleep more difficult and reducing its quality.
Research also indicates that children who spend more time in front of television and tablets sleep fewer hours compared to others
