The toddler screen debate: are we asking the wrong question?

So the “young kids and screens debate” rages on.  At one extreme, some argue screens are very bad and that toddlers shouldn’t watch them at all.  Others say that iPad apps and TV shows (or YouTube clips) like Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer are a great tool for language-learning.  And even very young kids are increasingly using tools like Skype, Google Hangouts and Facetime to talk to Mum, Dad, siblings, other relatives and even playmates.

My view: we’re arguing about the wrong thing.

What the research says  

• Some studies show that toddlers do not acquire words from screens before the age of 3 (e.g. Robb et al, 2009; Scofield & Williams, 2007).
• Other studies show that some children under 3 years show some very limited learning (e.g. Barr & Wys, 2008).
• Children under 3 years can learn from screens if they believe the actions depicted are realistic and occurring live (e.g. Roseberry et al., 2010).
• Children recognise their name by 4 1/2 months of age and expect to hear it from adults (e.g. Mandel et al., 1995).
• Pre-recorded clips where the actor simply poses questions to children and pause for the answer (as in Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer) do not result in language learning for children aged under 3 years (e.g. Roseberry et al. 2014).
• Toddlers seem to learn better from watching a social interaction on video than from being directly addressed through video (e.g. O’Doherty et al., 2011).
• Children older than 3 years learn language robustly from video (e.g. Singer & Singer, 1998).

Where does that leave us?

The consensus is is that children of all ages learn language better from a live person than from an equivalent video (e.g. Krcmar et al, 2007, Kuhl et el. 2003).

But why?  Is it just the screen or something else?

In 2014, Sarah Roseberry, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff published the results of a clever study designed to find out.  They studied 36 toddlers aged 24-30 months and exposed them to new words (made up verbs) during play activities in one of three ways:

The results: children only learned the new words through live interaction and from the live Skype video calls – not the prerecorded video.

What does this mean?

The screen is not the key issue.  Instead, it’s whether the interaction is live and whether the adult responds immediately and relevantly to what the child does and says.

Children learn language best through two-way exchanges with adults where the adult refers to the child by name and asks questions relevant to the child (e.g. about their name, pets, brothers and sisters).

This is consistent with other research that has shown that:

Taken together, the results prove that language learning is improved by “social contingency”: adults responding immediately, reliably and accurately to the child’s words and actions.

Clinical bottom line 

Children younger than 3 do not learn language from pre-recorded video alone.  Children as young as 24 months can tell the difference between live social interactions and one-sided “ask and wait” models (like those used in Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer).  Live social interactions:

So, for children under 3 years of age, press pause on those Dora and Blues Clues episodes and have your child live Skype Dad or Mum at work instead!

Principal source: Roseberry, S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R.M. (2014). Skype Me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language. Child Development, 85(3), 956-970.

Image: http://bit.ly/1QNQdGw

Banter Speech & Language

Banter Speech & Language is an independent firm of speech pathologists for adults and children. We help clients in our local area, including Concord, Rhodes, Strathfield and all other suburbs of Sydney’s Inner West.

Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.

David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).