Reducing the negative effects of screen time on little brains may be as simple as encouraging children to play outside, a study by Japanese researchers suggests. If you have young children, you’re probably concerned about how much screen time they spend, whether it’s a tablet, phone, computer or television. A new study by researchers at Osaka University indicates that more screen time at age 2 is linked to poorer communication and daily living skills at age 4 — but even when children play outside, screen time Some of the negative effects are reduced.
Specifically, about one-fifth of the effects of screen time on daily living skills were mediated by outdoor play, meaning that increasing outdoor play time could reduce the negative effects of screen time on daily living skills by about 20 percent. .
In the study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers also found that, although it was not linked to screen time, socialization was better in 4-year-olds who spent more time playing outside than in those aged 2 years and 8 months.
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“Taken together, our findings suggest that optimizing screen time in young children is really important for proper neurodevelopment,” said Tomoko Nishimura from the university.
The findings come amid continuing concerns over the adverse effects of smartphone use by children, especially due to the recent COVID-19 lockdown, which has led to more screen time and less outdoor time for children.
The World Health Organization also recommends that 2-year-olds be exposed to no more than one hour a day of sedentary screen time — defined as activities such as watching TV and playing computer games.
For the study, the team followed 885 children ages 18 months to 4 years. They looked at relationships between three key characteristics: average amount of screen time per day at age 2 years, amount of outdoor play at age 2 years 8 months, and neurodevelopmental outcomes – specifically, communication, daily living skills and socialization. Score – at the age of 4 years.
“Although communication and daily living skills were both worse in 4-year-olds who had more screen time at age 2, outdoor play time had very different effects on these two neurodevelopmental outcomes,” said lead author Kenji J. Osaka University.
“We were surprised to find that outdoor play did not reverse the negative effects of screen time on communication — but it did have an effect on daily living skills,” Tsuchiya said.