Screens are one more extension of the arms of adults, and increasingly of our little sons and daughters. East Excessive use of cell phones and other technologies from such an early age affects the development of our children, especially cognitive level.
Mobile phones, tablets or video games fascinate children, but they affect and harm the brain development of our children, especially when they are young, according to several studies. We can see in our day to day how children are exposed to these screens on a daily basis. They use them to entertain themselves, to look for a doubt, to study… But also we as parents sometimes use these technologies to get our children to calm down, in most cases because we don’t find a better solution or we don’t have the tools to get them to relax.
The data confirms this excessive use. According to data from Emtallados and Gad 3, the smallest used the screens in the year 2020 almost 4 hours a day. From the Kaiser Family Foundation they point out that 43% of children under 2 years of age watch TV every day and those under six years of age spend two hours a day in front of these screens, almost the same time they spend playing outdoors, and three times as much time as they spend reading or listening to what someone reads to them.
How does the mobile and other screens affect the brain development of children?
More and more research is emerging whose objective is to study how the time of exposure to screens can affect the brain of the little ones, and how it can thus affect the behaviors and abilities of boys and girls. The ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study began in 2018 and studies more than 11,000 children exposed to different factors, including screens.
The first results have shown that children who spend more than two hours exposed to the mobile or other devices, obtain worse scores in the language and thinking tests. Likewise, the brain scans carried out in this research have shown how there are differences in the brains of those who spend more than 7 hours a day with all kinds of devices compared to other brains that do not have as much exposure. From this same study, it is being examined if a great exposure to screens can lead to a thinner cerebral cortex.
East another study published in the journal Jama Pediatrics points out that there is a correlation between a large number of hours of exposure to screens and a decrease in white matter in the brain. Although more research is needed to substantiate this fact, excessive use of screens at an early age can reduce the brain’s white matter, which can harm our language learning.
Cell phones and loss of attention
The introduction of screens in our lives has changed our ability to concentrate and pay attention. Catherine L’ecuyer, Ph.D. in Psychology and Education, told us about it in this presentation: the platforms of streaming They offer us to reproduce the content at double speed so that we can maintain our attention, the audiovisual content is full of stimuli so that we are not distracted by other screens.
“When we saw Maya the Bee, it flew slowly with Willy and everything was very slow. Now they are remaking much of the content that we saw when we were little but at breakneck speed & rdquor;. Thus, “the child gets used to that speed, which does not exist in the real world. When he returns to the real world everything bores him”, Cathérine told us.
This study published by the Foundation Acta Paediatrica also reaffirms this position on attention loss and electronic devices: while reading a book increases the brain’s connection with the language areas, the visual and cognitive control regions, the time that children are exposed decreases the brain connection.
Screens can harm children’s physical health
Excessive use of screens can also harm the physical health of children. This study published in the journal Pediatrics Obesity demonstrates that American children ages 9 and 10 who use screens the most are more likely to gain weight a year later. According to one of the study’s researchers, obesity and screen factors are related because “screen time is often sedentary and can replace time for physical activity. Children are exposed to more food advertisements and are more likely to snacking and overeating while distracted by screens.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also points to obesity as a possible consequence of excessive use of screens, as well as adds other factors such as complications in falling asleep, problems in the school environment or future risk behaviors.
Recommendations to make good use of mobile and other technologies
From the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics it is recommended that children up to 24 months are not exposed to any type of screen. And from 2 to 5 years old, the maximum time must be 1 hour, and it must be ensured that it is quality and educational content.
For older boys and girls, Unicef points out that children between 5 and 12 years old should spend a maximum of an hour and a half a day with screens and their use should be supervised. Starting from adolescence, they recommend that they be guided so that they make proper use of it themselves.