More Toddler Screen Time Brings More Tantrums

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Using tablets as ‘e-babysitters’ for toddlers could lead to more tantrums, which in turn can have harried parents trying to calm a child by handing them a tablet, new research shows.

This type of “vicious cycle” played out during the early years of many of the Canadian youngsters tracked in the study.

The bottom line, according to the researchers: “Tablet use in early childhood can disrupt the ability to manage anger and frustration and lead to increased outbursts in young children.”

The research was led by Caroline Fitzpatrick, a professor of education at the University of Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Quebec. It was published Aug. 12 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

As Fitzpatrick’s team noted, the preschool years are “a sensitive period for the development of emotional regulation skills.”

Babies are often prone to crying and screaming. But as years go by they become toddlers and then young children who are (it is hoped) much better at controlling expressions of anger and frustration.

However, they need parental attention to do so. According to the researchers, toddlers learn to regulate emotions in two ways. First, parents can directly coach kids to help control emotional outbursts as they arise; and secondly, kids watch parents closely to learn how adults deal with their own emotions.

Increasingly, however, toddlers are interacting with screens rather than mom or dad, Fitzpatrick’s team said.

They noted that, “according to a U.S. survey, most 4-year-olds own their own mobile device,” and — no doubt helped by the pandemic — the amount of time a young child spends staring at these devices rose from an average of 5 minutes per day in 2020 to 55 minutes per day in 2022.

Fitzpatrick’s team found that adding about an hour’s extra screen time per day at three-and-a-half years of age corresponded with a significant jump in that child’s anger/frustration levels just one year later.

That relatively high level of emotional upset at the age of 4.5 years was then tied to an increase in the use of e-tablets by the child when they reached 5.5 years of age, the researchers found.

Overall, “these results suggest that early childhood tablet use may contribute to a cycle that is deleterious for emotional regulation,” the Canadian team concluded.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/more-toddler-screen-time-brings-more-tantrums-study-finds

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