Screen time and speech in young children

The article presents experimental data on the relationship between screen time and speech development in children aged three years. The study involved a speech therapy examination of children, an interview with parents and a questionnaire survey. The attitude in the family to reading books and watching cartoons was assessed, as was children’s and parents’ screen time. It was shown that the longer the child’s daily screen time, the higher the probability that the child does not have phrasal speech. The results obtained were analyzed in the context of the role of the family language environment in the child’s speech development. Apparently, at an early age, the negative impact of digital technologies on speech development exceeds their positive impact. Children who are immersed in digital entertainment at an early age show lower results in cognitive and speech development at school. At an early age, a child’s increased screen time leads to a decrease in motor activity and a decrease in the time of interaction between the child and parents, which negatively affects speech development. The most negative impact is related to watching TV, as it is a passive process. The article provides evidence from scholarly literature that dialogic reading of books with a child can become a unique tool that helps parents to accompany the child’s speech development and regulate their own and the child’s screen time. Reading books to a child is a unique experience of interaction and vocabulary expansion. Hyperscanning studies show the neural synchronization of a child’s brain with the mother’s brain during dialogic reading. Educational projects for parents are needed to help evaluate and master dialogic reading with young children.