Ticking time bomb: Smart devices gradually develop bad behavior in children

Using smart devices to calm or occupy toddlers during tantrums could stunt their healthy emotional development and make them more volatile over time, a study shows.

Five researchers published the study of 422 parents and their children ages 3-5 in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. Conducted from August 2018 to January 2020, it found that children soothing themselves with smartphones or tablets made poorer decisions and became more explosive after three- and six-month intervals.

Responding on a 5-point scale to a questionnaire, the parents of boys and high-spirited children reported the sharpest cognitive declines in executive functioning and spikes in emotional reactivity.

“Although using videos, apps, or photographs on a device may be effective in distracting or assuaging a young child’s distress in the moment, the results of this … study suggest that this practice may become a more frequent habit with more emotionally reactive children, and that this may worsen their emotion-regulation skills over time,” the researchers wrote.

Silencing a crying or screaming child with devices can reinforce bad behavior by offering a “pleasurable reward,” said the study’s lead researcher, Jenny Radesky, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician.

“Since smartphones and tablets came into our homes, parents have wondered how much to use them as a behavioral tool, and this study suggests that they’re probably not best used as in-the-moment emotion regulators,” she told The Washington Times.

Parents who “say that devices and videos are the only things that calm their kids down” should consider using educational videos, said Dr. Radesky, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School.

“In cases like this, I recommend using videos that teach calming skills, like Elmo’s ‘belly breathe’ video, when handing a device to the child,” she said. “And working with a therapist or early educator to learn a few other tools for helping prevent and respond to big emotional reactions.”

She cautioned that any “high-pleasure distraction” — like unboxing videos that show the unwrapping of an exciting product, or scary and violent videos — can cause problems over the long haul.

The study follows a growing number of reports showing children gained weight, fell behind at school, and suffered spikes in clinical anxiety and depression during pandemic-era virtual learning.

Screen time among children aged 12 and 13 doubled from 3.8 hours per day to 7.7 hours per day between 2019 and 2020, according to a separate study that JAMA Pediatrics published in November 2021.

Monday’s study confirms that “the overuse of devices to soothe big emotions” is reaching toddlers as well, said Laura Linn Knight, an Arizona-based parenting coach and author.

“In my work as a parenting educator and in my experience as a mother, I have seen more and more children using devices to help regulate their emotions and calm down,” Ms. Knight, a former elementary school teacher, said in an email.

Parents who find it necessary to calm young children with devices might try an episode of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” that addresses the toddler’s feelings, she added.

“I would say toddlers can stay away from Pokémon,” Ms. Knight said. “YouTube shorts and shows can be very overstimulating as well.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under 2 and no more than 1 hour a day for toddlers aged 2-5,

Smart devices lower the attention span and make it harder for small children to concentrate, said Laura DeCook, the California-based founder of LDC Wellbeing.

“Physically, spending time on screens instead of on exercise and play can lead to issues such as childhood obesity and chronic neck and back problems,” said Ms. DeCook, who leads mental health workshops for families. “Mentally, it can hinder cognitive and social skill development.”

Although the study was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health specialists say the negative impacts of devices on toddlers have likely worsened over the past two years.

“Soothing troubled emotions by traveling in the world of devices is like developing a physical fitness program that includes eating 10 doughnuts a day,” said Ray Guarendi, a clinical psychologist and parenting author based in Canton, Ohio.