In the past, there was a concern that children would not spend a lot of time in front of the television. Today this continues, but the device may have changed.
The so-called smartphones and tablets may even be a good entertainment for the little ones, but the fact is that they can affect their motor coordination and cognitive ability over time.
The danger is in the number of hours in front of the screens: when this time is high, it can affect the child’s development.
This relationship was established through a Canadian survey published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics , which analyzed whether the use of cell phones in childhood is related to poor performance in child development tests .
The first step was to accompany more than 2,000 mothers and their children (from birth to the growth of babies).
Since the beginning of the research, mothers have informed researchers about the time their children spent on cell phones on weekdays and weekends. They also answered questionnaires related to the child’s performance in development tests at 2, 3 and 5 years of age.
As a result, the researchers observed that 24-month-olds who spent more time in front of screens had poor results on developmental tests at 36 months. The same happened in tests for the following ages.
Despite not clearly explaining the relationship between cause and effect, the study confirms the existence of a possible link between the excessive use of screens and difficulties in development.
