Parents’ phone use may harm kids’ speech

Parents who spend hours scrolling on their phones could be slowing their children’s language development, a study suggests.

Norwegian researchers found that parental smartphone use was linked to slower vocabulary development in children, potentially because screens interrupt the conversations and interactions youngsters need to build language skills.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, followed 747 children from the age of five until their eighth birthdays.

Researchers from the University of Oslo asked parents about their own phone and social media use, with screen time also recorded directly from their devices. They tracked how much time children spent using screens and whether they owned their own tablet or phone.

The youngsters completed language tests at five, six and seven, measuring vocabulary and grammar.

After accounting for factors including household income and parents’ education, the researchers found vocabulary development slowed as parental phone use increased.

Children whose parents spent around four hours a day on their phones scored about 2.5 points lower on language tests than those whose parents used their phones for around one hour daily.

Having their own device was also associated with poorer language scores at the beginning of the study. However, that difference had disappeared by the end.

Dr Junyi Yang, the study’s first author, said: “Smartphone use is often attentionally disruptive. Studies of parent-child interaction show that such disruption can affect children's word learning and language development.

“Greater overall screen use reflects a reduced opportunity for responsive interactions in the home.”

The researchers said increased screen use across the family could replace activities such as reading and storytelling, which help children learn new words.

They concluded: “Higher overall screen engagement within the family may replace high-quality interactions, such as shared reading and storytelling activities that promote word learning.”

The findings come amid growing concern about children’s screen habits. Earlier research found two-year-olds who spent around five hours a day using screens could say significantly fewer words than those using them for less than an hour.

The researchers stressed that differences linked to children’s own screen use had vanished by age seven.