Early Childhood Development and Screen Use with Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH

On this inaugural episode of Screen Deep, host Kris Perry interviews Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, about his decades of experience investigating the impact of screens in early childhood, from baby videos to tablet apps.

Drawing on his experience as a leading researcher, pediatrician, and parent, Dimitri shares both historical and recent findings on screen use among very young children, particularly its possible uses for early learning and its relationship to cognitive and language development. He emphasizes the importance of caregiver-child interactions, and the risk that digital media can displace this important facet of development. He also suggests that more can be done to hold tech companies accountable and make it easier for parents to make decisions about what media to choose for their children.

In this episode you will learn:

• How brains develop in early childhood and what the research says on media use for infants under 18 months
• Why introducing “learning” technology in early childhood may negatively affect cognitive and language development 
• The importance of “joint attention” in infant development - and why caregiver interaction is crucial during this time
• How engaging apps make it more difficult to command young children’s attention

For more resources and research on this topic visit the Learn and Explore section of the Children and Screens website (https://www.childrenandscreens.org)

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Music: 'Life in Silico' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au