TV on during meals is associated with poorer language development in young children
- Family meals are key moments for verbal exchanges between adults and children.
- At 2 years old, children who have a television systematically on during meals have the lowest level of language.
- The context of exposure to screens, in addition to the duration, is important to take into account for the proper development of children.
Screens are bad for the cognitive development of children. They reduce attention spans, modify the structure of the brain and most of the consequences are revealed during adolescence. On average, children aged 3 to 6 spend almost 2 hours a day in front of screens. Inserm researchers have studied the influence of this time spent looking at screens according to the context of use. In a study published June 8 in the journal Scientific Reports they point out that having a television on all the time at family mealtimes is associated with poorer language development in children.
Family meals, key moments of verbal exchanges
Children’s language development is greatly influenced by their immediate environment, be it their interactions with parents, siblings or other children. To this must now be added the screens which have taken an important place in homes. For the study, the researchers relied on data from the French EDEN cohort, which follows children over several years. This allowed them to measure the time of exposure to screens as well as the frequency of exposure during family meals, which constitute key moments of verbal exchanges between adults and children. In parallel, the researchers conducted language assessments with children to identify how the context of screen exposure may influence their language development.
In order to measure the times and contexts of screen use, the parents of 1,562 children in the cohort, aged 2, 3 and 5.5 years, completed questionnaires. In particular, they were asked how often the television was on during meals. Regarding the evaluation of children’s language, it began with questionnaires filled out by parents when the children were 2 years old, then by psychologists when they reached 3 and 5 and a half years old. In order to take into account the potential role played by other factors, several other variables were included in the statistical analysis, specifies Inserm, such as socioeconomic characteristics of the family (income, level of education of the parents… ) or related to the child (gender, mode of care, activities with the parents, etc.).
Screens, a brake on verbal interactions
“Cross-tabulation of these data revealed that a higher frequency of television on (watched or turned on in the background or visuals) during family meals was associated with poorer language outcomes.”, note the researchers. Moreover, the child’s language is not directly linked to the time he spends in front of screens. At 2 years of age, the lowest level of language was observed in children who are always exposed to television during family meals compared to children who were never. At 3 years and 5 and a half years, “language ratings and verbal intelligence quotient were higher in children ‘never’ exposed to television during family meals, compared to those ‘sometimes’ or more frequentlyreveal the authors of the study. These results therefore encourage us to better take into account the context in which exposure to screens takes place, and not just its duration..”
For the authors, meals are a crucial moment in the development of children who are disrupted by screens. “Although children are exposed to language through cartoons and other programs seen on screens, verbal interaction between adult and child is strongly associated with better child language development. . Television during meals can therefore act as a brake on the child’s verbal interactions, reducing both the quality and the quantity of exchanges between children and adults.”, says Jonathan Bernard, researcher at Inserm and co-author of the study.
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