Screen Time Robs Average Toddler of Hearing 1,000 Words Spoken By Adult a Day, Study Finds (theguardian.com) 86
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The average toddler is missing out on hearing more than 1,000 words spoken by an adult each day due to screen time, setting back their language skills, a first-of-its kind study has found. The research, published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) Pediatrics, tracked 220 Australian families over two years to measure the relationship between family screen use and children's language environment. Families recorded all the audio around their child using advanced speech recognition technology over a 16-hour period on an average day at home. They repeated this process every six months between the ages of 12 and 36 months. The lead researcher, Dr Mary Brushe from the Telethon Kids Institute, said: "The technology we use is essentially like a Fitbit, but instead of counting the number of steps, this device counts the number of words spoken by, to and around the child." The device also picked up electronic noise, which the researchers analyzed to calculate screen time.
The researchers found young children's exposure to screens including TVs and phones was interfering with their language opportunities, with the association most pronounced at three years of age. For every extra minute of screen time, the three-year-olds in the study were hearing seven fewer words, speaking five fewer words themselves and engaging in one less conversation. The study found the average three-year-old in the study was exposed to two hours and 52 minutes of screen time a day. Researchers estimated this led to those children being exposed to 1,139 fewer adult words, 843 fewer child words and 194 fewer conversations. Because the study couldn't capture parents' silent phone use, including reading emails, texting or quietly scrolling through websites or social media, Brushe said they might have underestimated how much screen usage is affecting children.
A language-rich home environment was critical in supporting infants and toddlers' language development, Brushe said. While some educational children's shows were designed to help children's language skills, very young kids in the age group of the study could struggle to translate television shows into their own life, she said. This study did not differentiate between whether children were watching high- or low-quality screen content.
The researchers found young children's exposure to screens including TVs and phones was interfering with their language opportunities, with the association most pronounced at three years of age. For every extra minute of screen time, the three-year-olds in the study were hearing seven fewer words, speaking five fewer words themselves and engaging in one less conversation. The study found the average three-year-old in the study was exposed to two hours and 52 minutes of screen time a day. Researchers estimated this led to those children being exposed to 1,139 fewer adult words, 843 fewer child words and 194 fewer conversations. Because the study couldn't capture parents' silent phone use, including reading emails, texting or quietly scrolling through websites or social media, Brushe said they might have underestimated how much screen usage is affecting children.
A language-rich home environment was critical in supporting infants and toddlers' language development, Brushe said. While some educational children's shows were designed to help children's language skills, very young kids in the age group of the study could struggle to translate television shows into their own life, she said. This study did not differentiate between whether children were watching high- or low-quality screen content.
Bruh (Score:1)
Bruh
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Ayup, no matter. It will be same few words repeated thousand times: Johnny sit still. Johnny be quiet. Johnny don’t do that.
Sounds like your Mammie was an ex-prison guard.
Obvious Solution (Score:5, Funny)
Have the toddler watch media with lots of talking adults, like Tarantino films.
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I think they must mean "words spoken by an adult who is physically present."
My memory of children's TV shows post-Looney Tunes is that nobody ever shuts up.
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Hey, I was raised by TV and I turned out TV!
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Screen time is destroying lumberjack culture.
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Possibly, but the summary specifically mentions TV. It doesn't seem like a very well controlled experiment, but I doubt they'd mention TV if they were just measuring words spoken with no qualifiers.
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The TV doesn't respond to them at all. It's having a conversation with itself, and continues on with or without the toddler's input. An iPad will only respond with the same repeati
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So yes, words spoken by an adult who is present.
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But are these adults mentally and emotionally present? Perhaps I'm asking for too much.
Re:Obvious Solution (Score:5, Funny)
like Tarantino films
I don't want her first words to be "English, m .. f... Do you speak it?"
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Re:Obvious Solution (Score:5, Funny)
like Tarantino films
I don't want her first words to be "English, m .. f... Do you speak it?"
More likely they'll be "Hey Motherf****r!!"
Which, if we're to be honest, is just another version of "Daddy".
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And "Uncle Bob", "the delivery guy", "that lady in tight, black leather short dress", who always visit when the resident MF is at work.
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More likely they'll be "Hey Motherf****r!!"
My granddaughter will never, as long as she lives, be allowed to forget the time she was two and turned to get her father's attention by saying "Hey, Babe?!" in a perfect imitation of her mother's voice.
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Given the way most adults talk to kids, it would be the appropriate response.
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Considering the large number of Americans who can't speak English, might want to start there first.
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The presumption of TFA is that if kids weren't watching TV, they would be having conversations with their parents.
That's unlikely. Parents hand the kid an iPad or plop them in front of the boob tube because they are busy and have things to do.
If the "screens" weren't available, the to-do list would be just as long, and the kid would be given something else to do to keep them out of the way.
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I raised two smart kids, pretty sure by no other method than talking to them. Starts as a monologue and by age 3 you practically need earplugs yourself. Even a very underresourced parent can accomplish plenty of their "things to do" while telling their child what they're doing, asking questions as if the child could answer, supplying the answer, etc. Why wouldn't you talk to them like they understand you? Someday they will, and if you wait for it to be obvious t
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Why do people have kids when they don't want them? I don't want kids, so my obvious solution was to have none.
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I want kids. I also want to be able to do the washing up, vacuum and cook dinner without constantly tripping over my minions. My solution is to put some Infected Mushroom or Anamanaguchi on blast and dance with them while I work. Needing time to do things without interruption have kids but did not want kids.
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Fucking /. ..
> Needing time to do things without interruption [does not equal sign] have kids but did not want kids.
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Why do people have kids when they don't want them?
People who want kids still have to earn a living.
If they WFH and have a Zoom meeting, the kids need to be doing something else.
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Live stream pay per view camera system, kids, enclosed area, hangry pit bull.
2 men enter, 1 man leaves!
Keeps them busy, builds character and makes some easy side hustle money. Win-win!
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Also serves as a powerful education and attitude adjustment tool. As in "behave or you're next!"
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A lot of people have kids because they want kids, but don't want to be parents.
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I'm fairly sure that there is a market for that somehow. Have they considered becoming nannies?
Re: Obvious Solution (Score:2)
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Doesn't work. One of the things adults do subconsciously when speaking to babies is regulate their talking pattern to a very specific way of speaking. That is constantly regulated based on baby's individual development stage when baby is your own or in your constant supervision otherwise.
You can test this yourself, observe your spouse or someone in your friend group when they talk to their babies. You'll very quickly notice a specific change, even if you momentarily get them out of it by talking to them. Th
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If you wish for me to write you a scientific article on the topic, this is doable. We'll obviously have to talk renumeration first.
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Just because you're too poor to afford me doesn't mean you need to be all huffy and puffy about it. Suck it up butter cup.
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I'll let you die on that hill. Don't forget clown wig and red nose.
Caregiver language references (Score:2)
One of the things adults do subconsciously when speaking to babies is regulate their talking pattern to a very specific way of speaking.
And your citation is where?
Follow citations from any article about "baby talk", "motherese", or "caregiver language". Start with this list of references [wikipedia.org].
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Have the toddler watch media with lots of talking adults, like Tarantino films.
Heh. Nothing quite like racial sensitivity training, brought to you by Django riding through Pulp Fiction to tell the tale of a drunken timeline with plenty of sex, violence, drugs, and four-letter emojis. Move over Mr. Rogers. There’s a new storyteller in town.
Tarantino far too vulgar and offensive? You should see what we’re finding in school libraries that grown ass adults can’t even read aloud to other grown ass adults in a PTA meeting because it’s been deemed far too vulgar a
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Such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"?
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Don't be silly. An LLM would at least appear to make sense.
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ok, but... (Score:2)
if a picture is worth 1000 words, and a video is 30fps, then just have the kid watch .033s of adult video and you make up the difference
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Oh shit. I think you've found a Paradox.
--
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. - Mother Teresa
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Twitter's algorithms present the kind of content you look for. Think about that.
This is good (Score:2)
1,000,000 words by first birthday (Score:5, Insightful)
My wife had a thing about our son hearing a million words by the time he was one. Heâ(TM)s now seven, and people have been commenting for years about the breadth of his vocabulary, diction and ability to articulate. He also basically had no screen time until Covid and we were both in meetings at the same time. These days itâ(TM)s still very limited to a short period in the evening before bed, and occasionally (with headphones!) for only a small part of the time weâ(TM)re at the pub or a restaurant. Itâ(TM)s important to engage with children and actually have conversations with them, which count far more than words on the telly or YouTube.
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It's important to engage with children and actually have conversations with them, which count far more than words on the telly or YouTube.
Bingpot. There is a world of difference between passive and active engagement. Active engagement requires use of rational faculties and develops conversational skill, empathy, projection and imagination.
Passively listening to garbage, not so much.
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My parents were the same and by age 7 I was, grammatically, at the level of a 16 year old. Our neighbours have often commented that they would always hear them talking to me almost to a point of irritation. The results however speak for themselves (lol puns)
Can you elaborate on your method? My oldest is 18 months and if either of them are in earshot I'm basically describing in detail everything I'm doing as I'm doing it. I'm curious how you go about it though.
Re: 1,000,000 words by first birthday (Score:2)
Thatâ(TM)s it: describing everything youâ(TM)re doing. Totally against the grain for me. And reading: weâ(TM)ve always had tons of books and reading them to our son is prioritised, starting with making two books (of his choice) the minimum for the end of the bed time routine. BTW, heâ(TM)s now on 200+ days in a row of reading to us, which was something weâ(TM)ve been trying to get him going on for a long time. I love that he wants to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to us i
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I love that you've turned advanced reading into a point of pride, not something I had considered in my approach. Thank you man.
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No such hard rules here, but the same general approach. We have a "no devices at the table" rule, which has always held from day 1 (the most distraction we might use at the table is a card game or something). If we're out somewhere, then no devices unless its to take a picture or something - no doom scrolling when you should be looking around you. That may change in their teens, but we'll resist as long as we can.
We've also always talked to our children as much like adults as was appropriate. We didn't "dum
I wonder why some people have kids (Score:2)
Yesterday I saw a mother with a 2 y/old in a push chair. The mother was talking on her 'phone, the child had a tablet - so not only not talking but not looking at the real world around him/her. I fear for the child's cognitive abilities in the future.
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What's the issue?
There isn't room in society for everyone to be an elite Rhodes scholar super genius.
We need fry cooks, too.
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Because Crom forbid she was talking to a GP, arranging her parents/relatives to come over and babysit so she could go out for a few, rare, unencumbered hours like the normal person she used to be, or chatting to a fellow mum for an empathetic ear or advice about whatever weird shit her kid is doing this week. How fucking dare she, amirite?
Festival of ignorance (Score:2)
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Sounds devastating but... (Score:3)
My wife and I are both the silent types and heavy technology users. I don't do the phone thing and my wife has significantly reduced it but otherwise, lots of tech and screens for us and for her.
You wouldn't believe her vocabulary and her first words were very early. As a first time parent I'd read this and immediately freak out. Now that I'm on my second I'm not sure I see what difference it makes. The little monsters will still learn to speak just fine and when a kid learns early childhood skills seems to come out in the wash, the skills they learn at 3 are so easy for them that they can learn them in a day at 6.
That said I could be wrong because we are also readers. Part of my screen time was on a kindle reading to her a few hours a day throughout her early childhood. I just swapped in a young adult fantasy series to my list and spend a few hours reading from wherever I happened to be in the books since she didn't understand the story anyway. I also had her reading at a 2nd grade level by 2 and made reading the subtitles a condition for TV time. I completely forgot I'd told her that and didn't really expect it to happen... six months later I'm wondering where she is getting all these new words and asked where she'd been hearing this or that and she read it in the subs on one of her shows. So perhaps rather than giving up your screens and suffering you can instead compensate but reading to them.
Hearing fewer words? (Score:3)
If they're glued to the TV or tablet they're probably hearing MORE words and probably being introduced to more things than they'd see in their every day lives. Of course they're probably verbalising and socializing less which are legit concerns to limit screen time but I'm sure it's not all negative.
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Word (Score:1)
(see what I did there? :p )
Gibberish (Score:1)
TV was better before streaming (Score:2)
My mother told me how as a toddler I would get up early in the morning to turn on the TV and watch English programs such as Sesame Street and other such shows.
She noticed I seemed to understand what was said and at one point asked me a question in English and was very surprised that I gave a clear answer back. I would not know English fluently today had that not happened when I was that age. Most people who learned English at school were
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quote was malformed (Score:2)
Because logically it should have been "Adults in charge of children letting them have too much Screen Time Robs Average Toddler of Hearing 1,000 Words Spoken By Adult a Day" no?
Sure (Score:2)
But they will hear 2000 words by Peppa Pig and get a British accent.
Presumptions (Score:1)
Talking isn't *necessarily* proportionate to language acquisition: my mother-in-law once attested that my husband was extremely quiet until he blurted out a complete sentence (asking about some stranger on the beach) when he was 5. But even if we suppose it were:
"Because the study couldn't capture parents' silent phone use, including reading emails, texting or quietly scrolling through websites or social media, Brushe said they might have underestimated how much screen usage is affecting children."
If the re
robs? (Score:2)
Screen Time Saves Average Toddler of Hearing 1,000 Words Spoken By Adult a Day, Study Finds