Ep 71: Is screen time harmful for children under 2?

Guest: Dr. Cindy Hovington, Ph.D.

Summary:

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends NO screen time younger than 18 months and very little screen time (<1hr/day) from 18-24 months unless it’s video-chatting with family members. Have you ever wondered why?

The Curious Neuron team decided to dig deep into the research and see if certain claims about screen time in toddlers were true.

You might be surprised by the results and what the research student concluded about screen time in toddlers.

Listen to this short 20 min episode to learn more or read the full blog post on our website below:
https://www.curiousneuron.com/childdevelopmentarticles/2022/8/14/are-we-overreacting-about-limiting-screen-time-in-toddlers

Sources:

2020 meta-analysis also correlates evening screen time with poorer sleep outcomes in toddlers under 2 years old, but not preschoolers (Janssen 2020)

Many people claim that can impact language development - this seems to be true when kids under the age of 2 watch too much television unsupervised (Alroqi 2022)

Many studies show that increased screen time reduces sleep time and sometimes quality (Chindamo 2019)