found that screen time may be associated with delayed development in young children.

Question

This claim is true; the article cited the source directly, and when following that claim, I found exactly what they said. New York Presbyterian states that over 4 hours of screen time is detrimental to a kid's cognitive abilities. When following that statement, I found that Jama Network claimed the same thing days before NYP published their claim. Jama Network cites every single reference they used to create this article made by doctors and physiologists. Both articles have the same data along with many other articles not cited.

Comments

It has been been proven that increased screen time, especially at an early age, can cause developmental issues in children. According to an article published by Hackensack Meridian health, a study found that "children exposed to more screen time at the age of one, showed developmental delays in communication and problem solving by ages two and four. "

Sources:
https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/healthu/2023/09/11/screen-time-and-developmental-delays#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20found%20that,by%20ages%20two%20and%20four.

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I like how you found outside sources related to this claim, however, does the information in these sources directly support the claim? In your answer, you said that "4 hours of screen time is detrimental to a kid's cognitive abilities," but this is not the same as the claim that "screen time may be associated with delayed development in young children." Do you have any information to support the "delayed development" claim, not just general information about cognitive abilities?

Answer 1

This claim is true. The claim is based on a study from JAMA Pediatrics conducted in 2023. The findings state "In this cohort study including 7097 mother-child pairs, a dose-response association was observed between greater screen time at age 1 year and developmental delays in communication and problem-solving at ages 2 and 4 years." Additionally, "The Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization Institutional Review Board reviewed and approved the study protocol." The Tohoku Medical Megabank was founded in 2012 by Tohoku University. Jennifer Cross, the author of the New York Presbyterian article is an "Attending Pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Phyllis and David Komansky Children's Hospital at Weill Cornell Medical Center." All sources check out for this claim.

https://weillcornell.org/jfcross

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2808593

https://healthmatters.nyp.org/what-does-too-much-screen-time-do-to-childrens-brains/

https://www.megabank.tohoku.ac.jp/english/

Comments

Hi chur Newbie, this is a very serious topic and I appreciate that you added more sources that give extra information on this so that we know this article is reliable and can be tested as such.

Answer 2

This claim that screen time may be associated with developmental delays in young children is true. The article from Health Matters explicitly cites a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. In this study, data was collected from a group of around 8,000 children. The study found that children who were exposed to over four hours of screen time at the age of 1 years old showed developmental delays at the ages of 2 and 4 years old. With additional research, I found that this particular study has a lot of coverage and has been reported on by other reputable news sources including CNN and the Washington Post. This source seems very trustworthy and provides good evidence that directly supports the claim.

Answer 3

As the years go on, the age at which someone first receives a phone or iPad has decreased. This has led to people asking questions about it’s affect, and those questions have led to this claim. The reality of this claim is important to prove or to disprove, and there are several articles that work to confirm it.

In 2019, an article was posted by PubMed Central about the association between screen time and Children’s performance on a developmental screening test. The article describes a study done with children who had high levels of screen time from ages 2-3, and their developmental milestones from ages 3-5. Test study resulted in a clear association between screen time and poorer performance in developmental screening tests.

However, there is an extra piece of information to mention. The article points out the possibility of an opposite cause and effect. That is, the idea that children with poor developmental performance receive more screen time, as a way to “manage” challenging behavior. 

The claim has evidence backing it up, and health care professionals often help parents decide on an appropriate amount of screen time.

Answer 4

After doing research I discoverd this claim that screen time may be connected with delayed development in young children to be correct.

Studies and researchers agree that too much screen time especially for children under age 5 can slow, social and cognitive development. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting screen use and encouraging real world interaction instead.

Research from the National Institutes of Health discoverd that children who spend more than two hours a day on the screens, score lower on language and thinking tests.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/screen-time-linked-changes-kids-brains

https://healthmatters.nyp.org/what-does-too-much-screen-time-do-to-childrens-brains/

Another study found in JAMA Pediatrics showed that higher screen time at age 2 was linked to delays in communication and problem-solving by age 3.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2722666

Experts state that while a small amount of supervised screen use can be educational, excessive screen time is highly linked to slower development in children.

Answer 5

The claim that too much screen time may be associated with developmental delays in young children seems to be true. The article discuss a 2023 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, in which 7097 children were studied and showed that more screen time was associated with greater risk of developmental delay in the communication, personal, and social skills of children ages 2-4 (referenced in the article). This holds up when we investigate the study they mentioned, which includes data that directly supports this claim. Another study done by JAMA in 2019 came to the claim conclusion, stating that "greater screen time at 24 months was associated with poorer performance on developmental screening tests at 36 months, and similarly, greater screen time at 36 months was associated with lower scores on developmental screening tests at 60 months." Overall this claim seems to be correct.