Want To Curb The Impacts Of Screen Time On Kids? Make Them Play Outdoors

Be it phones, tablets, laptops or television, screens have become quite common in most aspects of people's lives. It is only natural for parents to be concerned about the impact these devices have on the development of young children. A team of researchers has found that making kids play outdoors may help mitigate some of the impacts of screen time on early development.

For their new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from Japan sought to find out if higher screen time during infancy has an impact on children's neurodevelopment, and whether these impacts may be mitigated by playing outdoors.

"These young children are particularly at increased risk of delayed language development, inattention problems, emotional problems, defiant behaviors, and poorer reading and academic performance through preschool ages and childhood," the researchers wrote. "This is alarming because the age of first use is becoming lower."

For their work, the researchers followed 885 children from 18 months of age until they were four years old. They looked at the relationship between average screen time at two years old, the frequency of outdoor play at two years and eight months, and neurodevelopmental outcomes (communication, daily living skills, and socialization), Osaka University noted in a release.

Screen time that's longer than an hour a day at two years old was considered "higher" screen time.

The researchers found that those who had higher screen time at age two had "poorer" communication and lower scores in daily living skills at four years old. The outdoor play did not impact the negative effect that screen time had on communications. However, it was able to mediate and alleviate some 18% of the impact on daily living skills.

Furthermore, while socialization was not impacted by screen time, it was better in the four-year-olds who played outside more at two years and eight months.

"Taken together, our findings indicate that optimizing screen time in young children is really important for appropriate neurodevelopment," study senior author Tomoko Nishimura said, as per the university release.

"Frequent outdoor play may mitigate the connection between higher screen time and later suboptimal neurodevelopment, implying potential for intervention," the authors wrote.

Indeed, outdoor activities have been "inversely associated" with factors such as screen time and sedentary time, the researchers said. Because of the pandemic, children had higher screen time and less physical activity. Worryingly, however, screen time has reportedly not decreased even after some of the Covid measures were lifted, they noted.

"Future research should specify the nature of the associations and intervention measures, enabling targeted interventions that reduce the potential risk in screen time," they wrote. "Further, updating guidelines regarding media use is extremely important for parents, educators, researchers, and the children themselves."