Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
This is another study to show that there is no quick and easy answer to the question of screen time and children. In fact, a group of researchers have come to the conclusion that quality is the most important factor rather than quantity of screen time.
You may ask what quality is in terms of screen time with the number of programmes targeted at young children and particularly those under three-years old on the rise. Screen time, probably no surprise to many, has more than doubled over the last 30 years.
These researchers from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and Paris Nanterre University, France, analysed 478 studies over the last two decades in a paper just out.
They note that “Weak narrative, fast pace editing, and complex stimuli can make it difficult for a child to extract or generalise information. But when screen content is appropriate for a child’s age, it’s likely to have a positive effect, particularly when it’s designed to encourage interaction.”
So, the first thing is that the content should be suitable. Interestingly I noticed when my children were small that they became fascinated with the TV programme Caillou – Caillou is a cartoon done very simplistically about a small kid who experienced very simple daily problems. None of the crazy stuff that some cartoons have – but the story was so simple and relatable that they loved it.
The next surprise is that watching with parents (or others) seems to be positive – especially when this supports and enables interactions and clarifications – this seems to have positive effect and help with interpretation but also on development of words and language.
This suggest that watching age suitable content with your kids and enabling clarification and interaction but also shared enjoyment, not to forget, is positive and supports development of children.
So as with many things in life – screen time is more nuanced but the simple rule is make it age appropriate, share in the experience, and still allow social interaction. It’s also probably the same with adults!
Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
References
Bahia Guellai, Eszter Somogyi, Rana Esseily, Adrien Chopin.
Effects of screen exposure on young children’s cognitive development: A review.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2022; 13
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.923370
More Quick Hits
Your brain on near-death experiences
Near-death experiences have fascinated many people ever since they have been reported. And these experiences guide our view of how we die: the memories of your life passing in front of your eyes, the tunnel of light, the floating movement towards a bright light....
Social networks grow your brain
The headline is a bit “click baity” but it is what a group of researchers found. To be more specific they found in macaques (cute monkeys) in the wild that having more grooming partners grew different regions of the brain. Grooming is the primate version of having a...
What do creative brains look like?
We’d probably all be happy to be a bit more creative — though research into our own opinions show that many people do actually consider themselves to be above average in creativity. An obvious self-bias. This is where scientists who study creativity come in and find...
New gender biases discovered
There have been many studies on gender biases, and I have followed, written, and spoken about many of these biases over the years (over a decade actually) but two studies have just come out that caught my eye. One out of New York University focused on gender natural...
Growth of your brain over your life
So, we all know that our brain grows very quickly as babies and children and then after a certain age, younger than some of us may like to think, there begins a slow decline. But precisely what and how is the question. Well, this is a question that an international...
How to reduce loneliness
I have reported multiple times on loneliness during the pandemic – mostly because interest and research into loneliness has taken a large uptick. I have also reported on how to combat this and was happy to see that a piece of research just out proved what I had...