How touch screens can hinder a child's verbal development

A recent US study of infants up to three years old found that children who played non-educational games using touch screen devices had lower verbal scores.

Results from the study by paediatricians at the Cohen Children's Medical Centre in New York also showed that, although the majority of parents cited in the study believed their children received educational benefits from using smartphones, readers and tablets, there was no statistical difference in developmental scores in children who played educational games versus non-educational games.

Ruth Milanaik, a behavioural physician at the centre and chief investigator in the study, says smartphones are the number one "toy" for toddlers.

"It was striking to see that parents were substituting books and general baby toys for smartphones. Many parents did not seem to bring any other distraction for their children except the touch-screen devices," she says.

Of the 65 families surveyed, 63 owned a touch screen device. The average age of the child when starting to use one was 11 months, and average use was about 36 minutes daily.

The most common forms of touch screen device usage were watching children's "educational shows"(30 per cent), using educational applications (26 per cent), pressing buttons on the screen aimlessly (28 per cent), and playing non-educational games (14 per cent).