Study Shows Link Between Gadget Use and Toddlers' Vocabulary 0 10

Two-year-old children who spend a lot of time in front of gadget and television screens have a smaller vocabulary than their peers. This conclusion was reached by British scientists during a large-scale study. The Telegraph reports on this.

The study involved specialists from the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and University College London. They found that the average two-year-old in Britain spends more than two hours a day in front of screens—twice the recommended limit by WHO. In a test of knowledge of 34 words, children with screen time exceeding five hours had an average vocabulary that was four words smaller than those who spent less than an hour in front of devices.

The researchers identified a critical threshold of 86 minutes of daily screen time. Beyond this point, the link between gadget use and vocabulary reduction significantly strengthens. Additionally, nearly 40 percent of children with maximum screen time exhibited emotional and behavioral difficulties: twice as often as among children with limited device use.

The study also revealed a social aspect of the problem: children from less affluent families spent more time in front of screens and engaged in joint reading with parents less frequently.