Research from the GUSTO (Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes) study sheds light on the influence of passive screen time on young children’s development.
Digital technology has become part of our everyday lives. Today, ever younger children have access to smartphones, tablets and other devices.
But research findings—from a longitudinal study done in Singapore—indicate that no children below 18 months should engage in passive screen viewing. And children aged 18 to 36 months should have their passive screen time limited to an hour per day.
Passive screen viewing is sedentary. It involves unthinkingly receiving screen-based information (e.g., by watching endless loops of YouTube videos). Ultimately, it means using screens as pacifiers.
This type of screen viewing (between the ages of 1 and 1.5 years) has been connected with delays in the development of social skills. The GUSTO study also suggests a link between longer durations of screen time at 1 year of age and lower language skills at 4.5 years of age.
Neurodevelopmental research posits that the fast-paced and repeated exposure to novel stimuli experienced while watching screens can overwhelm the infant brain.
Read more about researchers’ understandable concern about passive screen time here.
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