Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA.
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.
Acta Paediatr. 2024 May;113(5):1032-1039. doi: 10.1111/apa.17100. Epub 2024 Jan 10.
Media use is widespread and rising, but how often and for what purpose young children use media varies, which has differential impacts on development. Yet little work has measured how and why children under 36 months use digital media or media's consequences for language.
The current study measures how and why 17- to 30-month-old children use digital media and associations with their language abilities. The amount of use, type of activity and caregiver reasons for children's media use were then compared to the child's vocabulary and mean length of utterance.
About 17- to 30-month-old children are primarily exposed to TV/videos over other media forms, which are often used to occupy children. Video time (but not other activities) negatively predicts children's language. The negative impact of videos on vocabulary persists regardless of the reason for use, however, the effect of videos on expressive language may be tempered when videos are used for education or connecting.
Children under 36 months are using digital media at high rates. What they are doing and why they use media is critical to predict the effect it might have on language development. Further research and anticipatory guidance on the consequences of videos are needed.
媒体的使用非常广泛且呈上升趋势，但幼儿使用媒体的频率和目的各不相同，这对其发展有不同的影响。然而，很少有研究测量 36 个月以下的儿童如何以及为何使用数字媒体，以及媒体对语言的影响。
本研究旨在测量 17 至 30 个月大的儿童如何以及为何使用数字媒体，以及他们的语言能力与这些媒体使用的关联。然后，将儿童使用媒体的时长、活动类型以及照顾者的使用原因与他们的词汇量和平均话语长度进行比较。
17 至 30 个月大的儿童主要接触的是电视/视频等媒体形式，而这些媒体通常被用来占据儿童的时间。视频时间（而非其他活动）与儿童的语言能力呈负相关。然而，无论使用视频的原因是什么，视频对词汇量的负面影响都持续存在，但当视频用于教育或联系时，视频对表达性语言的影响可能会减弱。
36 个月以下的儿童正在高频使用数字媒体。他们使用媒体的方式和原因对于预测媒体对语言发展的影响至关重要。需要进一步研究和前瞻性指导，以了解视频使用的后果。
