New research from University of California, Davis, suggests that parents should delay introducing their children to any screen media, as well as limit preschool-age children's use of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.
The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics this week. Over a two-and-a-half-year period, researchers assessed 56 children aged 32 to 47 months and surveyed their parents. The research team assessed children's self-regulation skills, or those skills needed to plan, control, and monitor their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Young children's self-regulation skills predict later academic success, social functioning, physical and mental health, income, and criminality. Self-regulation skills were lower among children who began using any screen media devices (including television, computers, smartphones, and/or tablets) earlier in life, or who currently used mobile devices (smartphones and/or tablets) more often than others in the sample.
Text summary by DigitalPause based on an article from University of California, March 31, 2020