this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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It seems like the danger here is correlation vs causation.
It might just be that parents who are more prone to producing children with developmental delays also happen to be more likely to put those children in front of a screen to manage their behavior.
I'm not sure the data supports the conclusion this article is making.
I mean we have other studies that show kids who play video games usually are better at problem solving and fine motor controls.
Could be like you said, bad parents. Could also be that the content developed for mobile is somewhat mind numbing by design, most games are idle or just geared towards ads/in game purchases instead of game content. Apps tend to be easier to use and navigate as well.
Technology is obviously a powerful tool for both good and bad.
Also we're talking about toddlers, not 10 year olds. Toddlers still develop really foundational capabilities in cognition, vision and motor function which 2D flat screen games might have a very different effects than on 11 year old Tommy playing Roblox.
There are other factors they have observed as well. Let me quote the article.
But bad screens are a much sexier cause.
Regarding your last sentence: Are you suggesting insincere motives behind this study?
There is an argument to be made about how studies like this underpin technology averse boomers trying to vilify modern social life. OTOH, studies like this, correctly implemented, are utterly important. It wouldn't be the first time science has proven something very popular (e.g. smoking) is actually also very harmful.
That sentence directed towards the article and it choosing to focus on one part of the study. Sure I have not read the study so the link between "struggling" parents and development can be much weaker than screen time and development. It can be that the article presents the study without favoring any results. Or it could be highlighting those results that drives more clicks. I feel the second option is the more likely one.
Which are you more likely to digest and relate to as a bad parent: "giving your kids devices to shut them up is bad", or "screentime is bad"?
Most parents refuse to acknowledge that they do not know what is best for their child. "Screentime is bad" doesn't come with the caveat of "pay more attention to your child".
Yeah, that „study“ studies child neglect…
„By age 2 […] those who had spent four or more hours with screens were 4.78 times more likely to have underdeveloped communication skills.“
Wow. Children with no human interaction lacking communication skills, news at eleven.
Those poor children… this is really sad. And I’m really surprised they kept at it for so long.
What are you talking about? This data was collected in a field study, not in a lab.
I’m just finding that fact sad that people but their 1-year olds in front of a screen for 4+ hours a day, that’s all.
Ah ok, I thought you were insinuating kids were being excessively exposed to screens for the sake of research, which wasn't happening here. But yeah, I agree feeding your toddler 4+ hours of digital media a day is very depressing.
Oh, I see… I should’ve worded it a bit better.
I don’t know too much about these kind of studies, but it is based on a questionnaire filled out by the parents. I imagine it is quite hard to account for so many variables, since everybody interprets things a bit differently…
Exactly. Also, to make sure the correlation is not caused by other factors such as income, health, education of the parents there should be a statistical correction to make it a sound RCT.
That said, I would argue more than 1 hour of screen time for a 1 year old is already an extreme amount and thus I would not be surprised to see it has some significant effects on development.
It’s talking about parents giving 1 year olds and 2 year olds 1-4 hours of screen time a day. That amount of screen time for developing humans who sleep for a substantial part of the day is most likely poor stimulus in my opinion. I don’t see how you are jumping to parents prone to producing developmentally delayed children. You call nature. I call nurture. But just to check, which parents are more prone to producing children with developmental delays?
In other words, this study has no real scientific value.
But there are many more problems with this “study” than just that.
Lol "I don't like the results of this study, therefore it has not scientific value because I said so"
This is actually an incredibly poor take. Why do you think self-reported data has no scientific value?
A lot of studies in this area will suffer from the same issue. You can't exactly take two groups of toddlers and start mandating they watch 4 hours a day. So you'll have to depend on self-reports.
I don't know about other problems with this particular study, but it's not a surprising result really. Children need interaction with their caregivers to develop.