According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) in April 2019, all exposure to screens, from television to smartphones, for children under the age of one should be avoided, and its access controlled for older children .
This report is supported by another study by the public health agency France Public Health (SpF) which explains that children exposed to screens (television, game console, tablet, smartphone, computer) in the morning before school, have three times more risk of having language problems. This risk is multiplied by six if these children do not discuss “rarely, if ever” the content of screens with their parents.
The new study was carried out on 167 children with language disorders and 109 who were free, all aged 3 to 6 years, except for children whose language disorder was due to pathologies or handicaps and those whose the parents did not speak French. The results of this study revealed that 44.3% of children were exposed to screens against 22% of those who were free (the “witnesses”, for comparison).
“It is not the time spent in front of the screens, on average 20 minutes in the morning, but the time of day that has an impact. This will exhaust their attention and make them less able to learn, “said Manon Collet, one of the researchers. The use of digital media has increased over the past decade, including for young children who have access to television, computers, game consoles, tablets and smartphones, say the authors.
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