toddlers and tablets: study tracks distractions

tablets and smartphones  seem like benevolent  babysitters  to busy parents   but the distracting devices  may be  taking a toll on the development of toddlers.  

with the pandemic  pushing  people to spend   more time indoors, staring at screens, researchers are scrambling to determine  the dangers — or benefits —  of   extremely  early adoption of technology . “the use of smartphones and tablets by babies and toddlers has accelerated rapidly in recent years,”  said tim smith , the lead researcher and a professor of cognitive psychology at birkbeck’s centre for brain and cognitive development.   

“the first few years of life are critical for children to learn how to control their attention and ignore distraction, early skills that are known to be important for later academic achievement. there has been growing concern that toddler touchscreen use may negatively impact their developing attention but previously there was no empirical evidence to support this.”  

to address this scientific shortcoming, smith and his team established  the tablet project  (toddler attentional behaviours and  learning  with touchscreens) in an attempt to gauge how  screen time   affects  the cognitive, brain and social development of  small children . they recruited a group of 12-month-old infants who had varying levels of exposure to touchscreens and followed them over several years, testing them in their “ babylab ” initially and then  twice more  at 18 months and 3.5 years of age.   

the testing involved the use of an eye-tracker to measure attention as objects appeared in various spots on  a  screen. measurements were taken for how quickly  toddlers  looked at  these  objects and how well they were able to avoid  distracting objects . “we found that infants and toddlers with high touchscreen use were faster to look at objects when they appeared and were less able to ignore distracting objects compared to the low users,” smith said.  

one of the potential limitations of the eye-opening study, as pointed out by main researcher ana maria portugal, is that the findings may be indicative of correlation, not causation. “we are currently unable to conclude that the touchscreen use caused the differences in attention as it could also be that children who are more distractible may be more attracted to the attention-grabbing features of touchscreen devices than those who are not.”  

further study is needed to  confirm  causation, as well as to explore whether or not giving tablets to toddlers  is really a bad thing , said rachael  bedford , the study’s co-investigator and a senior lecturer in psychology at the university of bath. “what we need to know next is how this pattern of increased looking to distracting objects on screens relates to attention in the real-world: is it a positive sign that the children have adapted to the multitasking demands of their complex everyday environment or does it relate to difficulties during tasks that require concentration?”  

according to the  canadian pediatric society , screen time is not  currently  recommended for children younger than 2 years old and should be held to less than an hour for kids between the ages of 2 and 5 ,   citing  no known benefits to early exposure and some known developmental risks.  the organization  offers a host of suggestions to maximize these benefits and minimize risk, including encouraging parents to be healthy role models when it comes to technology.  

“ children younger than 5 years require active play and quality family time to develop essential life skills, such as language, self-regulation and creative thinking ,”  the site cautions .   “ regardless of age, children should not have to compete with screens for parental attention. ”  

dave  yasvinski  is a writer with   healthing.ca    

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