A new study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found a link between screen time and developmental delays in toddlers. A team of researchers from Japan found that infants who spend between one and four hours using tablets or cell phones were three times more likely to have delays in developing fine motor skills, problem-solving, and social skills when they are two.
Babies who spent more than four hours a day looking at screens were nearly five times as likely to experience delays in communication skills and twice as likely to have underdeveloped social skills by the time they were two years old.
By the time the children reach the age of four, those with extended periods of using screens were still showing signs of underdeveloped communication and problem skills.
"Kids learn how to talk if they're encouraged to talk, and very often, if they're just watching a screen, they're not having an opportunity to practice talking," Dr. John Hutton, associate professor of general and community pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, who wasn't involved in the study, told CNN. "They may hear a lot of words, but they're not practicing saying a lot of words or having a lot of that back-and-forth interaction."