Parental smartphone use linked to slower child language growth

A cohort study published in JAMA Pediatrics has identified links between digital device usage and language development in children. Following 747 Norwegian children from approximately ages 5 to 7, researchers examined how screen habits and parental device use affected receptive vocabulary and grammar.

The findings indicated that while most screen use measures did not show a strong correlation with language growth, two specific associations were notable. First, higher daily smartphone use by a child’s primary parent was linked to slower growth in the child’s receptive vocabulary. Specifically, each additional hour of daily smartphone use by the primary parent was associated with 0.42 fewer points in the child’s annual growth in receptive-vocabulary raw scores.

Additionally, owning a digital device at ages 4 to 5 was associated with lower language scores at the beginning of the study. Researcher Øistein Anmarkrud noted that the study showed a weaker correlation between children's screen time and language skills than some previous research, despite the specific associations found regarding parental use and early device ownership.