Smart Devices Stunt Children’s Speech

Researchers have been looking into young children and the use of smart devices and their speech development.  Children that start using these devices before the age of 2 are found to have a speech impediment.  There was a study on about 900 children between the ages of 6 months and 18 months where 20% of the children were using these devices for about 30 minutes a day.  The study showed that for every 30 minutes of screen time 49% of the children had a higher risk of developing a speech impediment.  Since children learn speech from their parents and the parents are not talking to their children as much today, they are finding that the children are not learning how to talk.

It is recommended that children under the age of 18 months not have any screen time except to face time with family.  Children between the age of 18 months and 24 months should be limited to mostly educational videos to at least help with their speech development.