By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Nov. 5, 2019 (HealthDay
News) -- Toddlers
who spend loads of time looking at tablets, smartphones or TVs may be changing
their brains, and not for the better.
A new study using brain scans showed that the white matter
in the brains of children who spent hours in front of screens wasn't developing
as fast as it was in the brains of kids who didn't.
It's in the white matter of the
brain where language, other literacy skills, and the process of mental control
and self-regulation develop, researchers say.
"What we think happens is that
the development of these skills really depends on the quality of the
experience, such as interaction with people, interaction with the world and
playing," explained lead researcher Dr. John Hutton. He is director of the
Reading and Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
The first five years of life is the
critical time when these brain connections are rapidly developing, Hutton
explained. "Some types of screen media may provide suboptimal stimulation
to reinforce the connection of fibers in the brain and the skills they support,
such as early language and literacy skills," he said.
Although TV has been around for
decades, Hutton pointed out that the recent explosion of portable screen
devices has greatly increased the time kids spend looking at them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) recommends that kids under 18 months shouldn't be exposed to screens at
all. From 18 to 24 months, if parents choose, digital media should include only
high-quality programming that the child and parent watch together.
For kids aged 2 to 5, screen time
should be limited to 1 hour per day, and parents should watch the programs with
their child. Also, parents should have times when screens are turned off, and
bedrooms should be media-free.
For the study, Hutton and his
colleagues did MRI
scans of the brains of 47 kids, aged 3 to 5 years. The children also took tests
to evaluate their cognitive ("thinking") skills.
Parents were asked to complete a
questionnaire that identified their ScreenQ, which tells how much time their
children spend in front of screens, and how closely they follow the AAP
recommendations.
The researchers found that the
higher the ScreenQ score, the lower the child's ability to rapidly name objects
(a measure of mental-processing speed), and the lower their developing literacy
skills.
Also, higher ScreenQ scores were
tied to delayed white matter development, specifically the process that allows
nerve impulses to move more quickly throughout the brain.
Hutton believes that the developing
brain needs the stimulation of other people and the real world to rise to its
potential.
"Young children really depend
on relationships with people, interacting with the world, using all their
senses," he said. "The more parents can keep their children off
screens in early childhood and let them interact with people in the world, the
better."
It's possible that the delayed brain
development caused by screens can be made up later, but it's harder for the
brain to change the older you get, Hutton added.
Reshma Naidoo, director of cognitive
neuroscience at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, said that watching
screens is passive and two-dimensional, both of which aren't good for
developing brains.
"From my perspective, the
biggest problems we are seeing is a lot less social engagement with
children," she said. "We're starting to see a lot more children that
have these very dysfunctional social patterns, and they're more responsive to
media."
Parents need to set the example for
their children, Naidoo said. "We need to shift their focus and engage with
our children," she added.
Parents who let their children watch
screens should use the time to interact with their child rather than making
screen time passive, she advised.
"But I strongly recommend
limiting the amount of time that you spend in front of those
environments," Naidoo said.
The report was published online Nov.
4 in JAMA Pediatrics.
