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Babies and screen time: New

research calls for caution
Posted on February 3, 2023 by Nancy Fliesler | Health and Parenting, Research
Tags: developmental medicine, eeg, media, neuroscience, primary care, well child care

A new study links excessive screen time with differences in brain development and problems with focus
and control at school age. (Image: Adobe Stock)
If you’re a parent, you’ve probably been there. You have a baby howling for attention,
but you need to cook dinner or get a sibling to take a much-needed nap. Baby TV
shows, touch tablets, and digital phone toys can feel like lifesavers in keeping an
active infant calm and contained while juggling what life brings.

But a new study suggests that too much screen time during infancy may lead to
changes in brain activity, as well as problems with executive functioning — the ability
to stay focused and control impulses, behaviors, and emotions — in elementary
school.

“The infant brain thrives on enriching interactions with the environment, and
excessive infant screen time can reduce opportunities for real-world interactions that
are important for brain development,” says Dr. Carol Wilkinson, a developmental
behavioral pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital who was part of the study.
“Especially today, when screens are with us all the time, we need to better support
parents in non-screen time tips and tricks to keep infants engaged and parents sane.”

Screen time, brain waves, and attention

In the most comprehensive investigation of its kind, the researchers enrolled
pregnant mothers in Singapore and followed more than 400 of their children, from
infancy all the way to 9 years of age.

When the babies were 12 months old, the team asked parents the amount of time
babies spent with screens on weekdays and weekends. Later, when the children were
18 months old, the researchers used encephalograms (EEGs) to study their brain
waves.
The EEG net on this toddler’s head captures electrical activity in different parts of the brain, which can then
be analyzed. (Courtesy Evelyn Law)

The more time the children had spent with screens at 12 months of age, the stronger
were their slower-frequency brain waves, known as theta waves, compared with high-
frequency beta waves.

“A higher theta/beta ratio indicates a less-alert state, and has been associated with
inattention,” explains Dr. Evelyn Law, who led the study and was part of the
Laboratory of Cognitive Neurosciences during her fellowship at Boston Children’s.

Lasting effects at school age

When the children reached age 9, they underwent extensive neuropsychological
testing. The research team also had the children’s parents and teachers complete
surveys about them.

Correlating with the EEGs, Dr. Law and her colleagues found that with every hour
increase in average screen time, the children had more difficulties with attention and
struggled more with executive functioning. However, because screen time is just one
aspect of an infant’s environment, it is likely that multiple factors come into play, such
as the quality of time with parents, the researchers say. It’s also possible that more
active infants unintentionally receive more screen time as their parents try to manage
their daily routines.
 Brain EEGs taken at 18 months of age. The ratio of theta waves to beta waves in the brain increases as
hours of screen time at 12 months of age increase.

Advice for parents

What can parents do to promote their child’s brain development during infancy? Drs.
Law and Wilkinson recommend creating simple playful interactions, as in these
sample activities. In the meantime, if parents need to put their infants briefly in front
of a screen, Dr. Wilkinson recommends trying to add layers of learning.

“Singing along, commenting on characters, imitating their baby’s vocalizations, and

asking them questions creates opportunities for back-and-forth interactions between
parents and baby that boost brain development,” she says.

The study findings, published this week in JAMA Pediatrics, are in keeping with
recommendations on media use from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP
advises keeping children away from screens until they’re 18 months old and limiting
digital media use for 2- to 5-year-olds to one hour per day.

Learn more about the Developmental Medicine Center and

check out our upcoming Kids’ Health podcast episode on screen
time.
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Tagged: developmental medicine, eeg, media, neuroscience, primary care, well child
care

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