News Update

Excessive screen time in infancy may impede later academic success, study suggests

Amid the spike in screen time fueled by the pandemic, a new study found that letting babies watch tablets and TV may impair their academic achievement as well as emotional well-being later on in childhood.

Researchers found that increased use of screen time during infancy was associated with poorer executive functioning once the child was 9 years old, according to the study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, as CNN reported.

Executive functioning skills are mental processes that “enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully,” according to the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child.

Executive functioning skills are key to higher-level cognition, including emotional regulation, learning, academic achievement and mental health, according to the study. They influence our success socially, academically and professionally, said Dr. Erika Chiappini, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

“Though these cognitive processes naturally develop from infancy through adulthood, they are also impacted by the experiences that we have and when we have them in our development,” said Chiappini in an email, as CNN cited.

The parents in the study reported each child’s screen time, and researchers found there was an association between screen time in infancy and attention and executive function at 9 years old. 

More research needs to be done, experts say, to determine if screen time caused the impairments in executive function or if there are other factors in the child’s environment that predispose them to both more screen time and poorer executive functioning, the study noted.

The data tracks with cautionary recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which discourages all screen time before 18 months old, said Dr. Joyce Harrison, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.