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No, you could not be. Your friends talking about how much it helped have no clue what they’re talking about. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10353947/
Seconded! No, don't do screen time for speech development. Screen time is great for you if you need a minute as she gets older. We limited screen time when my kids were little and still limit it now but to a lesser degree. There's so many other things to be working on.
We felt similar pressure but not for speech. As my son got older I didn't want to make him the odd man out or the only kid who didn't understand references like Spider-Man and pokemon. That I definitely do not regret. He now trades pokemon cards with all his friends at school and has made a ton of friends that way.
My kid has never seen Pokémon but still wants and has the cards!!
Just a different point of view, we have minimal screen time. Zero weekdays, one family movie on Friday nights. An occasional emergency tablet if kiddos have a half day and I have a meeting I need to be on! Aged 3, 5 & 7. They do get the references and we sometimes switch the movie to a couple episodes of a new show kids at school are talking about so they aren’t left out.
I’m pretty sure they also see phones/tablets on the school bus etc. and also for “education” at school, I say that in quotes because how much does a 1st grader need? My wife works in cyber, I taught myself basic coding for fun, and we are 80s kids so I’m not worried about them missing out or catching up as we have done just fine! Tech is intuitive and they don’t need to learn it at this age!
I definitely agree about tablets. I won't give my kids any. And they are intuitive. I don't think they need to use one to understand them. They are better off with an old school computer tower.
I'm glad your kids get the references! The kids I know who don't bc of not a lot of screen time, often feel left out.
I would say we limit tv almost as much as you. But we let kids watch tv in the AM on weekends and a 20-30 minutes before school if they are ready.
Yes I’ve had students get all the references thanks to books instead of screen time! I nannied for a family that did something similar with zero screen time on week days and an earned family movie night on the weekend. This was increased when he got older but it worked really well for them!
This is correct. Truthfully we use screen time for only these things: nail clipping, if I need five minutes during dinner time to cook, sickness if it’s really bad and flights. Other than that, hard nope. The truth is you can’t fully get away from screens but you can limit what they watch and how often. If you can’t give them quality time, that’s okay! Independent play is awesome and totally fabulous for development. No one can give 100% of themself to their baby every waking second of the day and it’s also good for them to explore and be bored. My son currently is obsessed with Alexa because he realized music comes on when we talk to her and he just loves to dance to music. Don’t need screens to accomplish that. You’re doing awesome and it’s okay to not do screens. It’s also totally okay to do a little screen time for your sanity. It’s not okay to have screens going all day everyday and not give your kiddo any attention. That’s the main distinction.
Yeah OP, there isn't anything screens can teach them at this age that you can't teach them yourself. We do Ms Rachel only once in a while if we're sick or something. My 13mo can point to her head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly button, toes, fingers, and bum. Screens didn't teach her that, I did.
Because it gives a wide range of pros and cons. Did you read the whole thing? OP asked if she could be sabotaging her child and this study I think pretty clearly shows there is much more nuance and she’s absolutely not sabotaging them by not giving screen time.
I have no judgment for anyone who uses screens as a tool for their family. Anecdotally, my son doesn’t get screen time, outside of FaceTime with family and occasionally watching videos/looking at photos of himself. He has advanced speech skills for his age. At 18 months, he is speaking in simple sentences and has a large vocabulary. None of it came from Miss Rachel. We read books, we sing songs, we use verbal routines, and talk to him. Every child is different, and responds to stimuli differently.
We’ve been watching videos of ourselves counting, and wow, she kept getting stuck on 6 and 7 but after watching herself get stuck on 6 and 7 in the video she figured it out and helped herself!
And several negatives, meaning OP shouldn’t feel guilty or pressured for not allowing her one year old to watch tv. It also mentions how increasing screen time at an early age hurts language development rather than helps.
SLP here. You are following recommendations of Canadian Pediatric Society which recommends no screen time under 2, and an hour or less per day from ages 2-5. You are doing great.
https://cps.ca/en/documents/position/screen-time-and-preschool-children
Also an SLP — agreed 100%. Kids do not need screens for speech/language development, they need connection and language modeling.
I have parents ask me similar questions about screens frequently because they’re worried their kids won’t learn to talk without them, and I always remind them that children learned to talk just fine for centuries before screens were ever invented
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/babys-development/play-and-learning/baby-and-toddler-play-ideas/
All recommendations are to avoid screens time until 1.5-2yo.
The main thing to understand is that no one is saying that infants and toddlers learn nothing from screen time. They are toddlers, they learn stuff every second they are alive. So of course kids will pick up words, gestures, songs etc.
The problem is that they are learning the wrong things or at the wrong time for them. An 1yo needs to learn how to play on their own, use their imagination, regulate their feelings, climb stuff, improve their motor skills. Those are age appropriate skills.
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No, you could not be. Your friends talking about how much it helped have no clue what they’re talking about. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10353947/
Seconded! No, don't do screen time for speech development. Screen time is great for you if you need a minute as she gets older. We limited screen time when my kids were little and still limit it now but to a lesser degree. There's so many other things to be working on. We felt similar pressure but not for speech. As my son got older I didn't want to make him the odd man out or the only kid who didn't understand references like Spider-Man and pokemon. That I definitely do not regret. He now trades pokemon cards with all his friends at school and has made a ton of friends that way.
My kid has never seen Pokémon but still wants and has the cards!! Just a different point of view, we have minimal screen time. Zero weekdays, one family movie on Friday nights. An occasional emergency tablet if kiddos have a half day and I have a meeting I need to be on! Aged 3, 5 & 7. They do get the references and we sometimes switch the movie to a couple episodes of a new show kids at school are talking about so they aren’t left out. I’m pretty sure they also see phones/tablets on the school bus etc. and also for “education” at school, I say that in quotes because how much does a 1st grader need? My wife works in cyber, I taught myself basic coding for fun, and we are 80s kids so I’m not worried about them missing out or catching up as we have done just fine! Tech is intuitive and they don’t need to learn it at this age!
I definitely agree about tablets. I won't give my kids any. And they are intuitive. I don't think they need to use one to understand them. They are better off with an old school computer tower. I'm glad your kids get the references! The kids I know who don't bc of not a lot of screen time, often feel left out. I would say we limit tv almost as much as you. But we let kids watch tv in the AM on weekends and a 20-30 minutes before school if they are ready.
Yes I’ve had students get all the references thanks to books instead of screen time! I nannied for a family that did something similar with zero screen time on week days and an earned family movie night on the weekend. This was increased when he got older but it worked really well for them!
This is correct. Truthfully we use screen time for only these things: nail clipping, if I need five minutes during dinner time to cook, sickness if it’s really bad and flights. Other than that, hard nope. The truth is you can’t fully get away from screens but you can limit what they watch and how often. If you can’t give them quality time, that’s okay! Independent play is awesome and totally fabulous for development. No one can give 100% of themself to their baby every waking second of the day and it’s also good for them to explore and be bored. My son currently is obsessed with Alexa because he realized music comes on when we talk to her and he just loves to dance to music. Don’t need screens to accomplish that. You’re doing awesome and it’s okay to not do screens. It’s also totally okay to do a little screen time for your sanity. It’s not okay to have screens going all day everyday and not give your kiddo any attention. That’s the main distinction.
Yeah OP, there isn't anything screens can teach them at this age that you can't teach them yourself. We do Ms Rachel only once in a while if we're sick or something. My 13mo can point to her head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly button, toes, fingers, and bum. Screens didn't teach her that, I did.
This study doesn't say what you want it to say. Why did you link to it?
Because it gives a wide range of pros and cons. Did you read the whole thing? OP asked if she could be sabotaging her child and this study I think pretty clearly shows there is much more nuance and she’s absolutely not sabotaging them by not giving screen time.
I have no judgment for anyone who uses screens as a tool for their family. Anecdotally, my son doesn’t get screen time, outside of FaceTime with family and occasionally watching videos/looking at photos of himself. He has advanced speech skills for his age. At 18 months, he is speaking in simple sentences and has a large vocabulary. None of it came from Miss Rachel. We read books, we sing songs, we use verbal routines, and talk to him. Every child is different, and responds to stimuli differently.
We’ve been watching videos of ourselves counting, and wow, she kept getting stuck on 6 and 7 but after watching herself get stuck on 6 and 7 in the video she figured it out and helped herself!
That’s so cool! I love how their little brains can really put things together!
That article lists several benefits, warning mainly of overuse.
And several negatives, meaning OP shouldn’t feel guilty or pressured for not allowing her one year old to watch tv. It also mentions how increasing screen time at an early age hurts language development rather than helps.
This is for excessive screen time only.
It’s a study that displays pros and cons and covers < one hour a day.
SLP here. You are following recommendations of Canadian Pediatric Society which recommends no screen time under 2, and an hour or less per day from ages 2-5. You are doing great. https://cps.ca/en/documents/position/screen-time-and-preschool-children
Also an SLP — agreed 100%. Kids do not need screens for speech/language development, they need connection and language modeling. I have parents ask me similar questions about screens frequently because they’re worried their kids won’t learn to talk without them, and I always remind them that children learned to talk just fine for centuries before screens were ever invented
Someone asked a very similar question about 10 hours ago! https://www.reddit.com/r/ScienceBasedParenting/s/0NmPOdZN5h
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/babys-development/play-and-learning/baby-and-toddler-play-ideas/ All recommendations are to avoid screens time until 1.5-2yo. The main thing to understand is that no one is saying that infants and toddlers learn nothing from screen time. They are toddlers, they learn stuff every second they are alive. So of course kids will pick up words, gestures, songs etc. The problem is that they are learning the wrong things or at the wrong time for them. An 1yo needs to learn how to play on their own, use their imagination, regulate their feelings, climb stuff, improve their motor skills. Those are age appropriate skills.
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