Screen time may be good for toddlers and can improve their attention, study claims

Toddler watching TV with dad. (Courtesy/Freepik)

Screen time may be good for toddlers and can actually help to improve their attention, a new study claims. Researchers from the University of Bath have revealed that toddlers with high daily touchscreen use are faster to find targets that stood out during visual search than toddlers with no or low touchscreen use. The team hopes the findings will help to settle the debate about the effects of screen time on young children.

Professor Tim Smith, who led the study, said: “The use of smartphones and tablets by babies and toddlers has accelerated rapidly in recent years. “The first few years of life are critical for children to develop the ability to focus their attention on relevant information and ignore distraction, early skills that are known to be important for later academic achievement. There has been growing concern that toddler touchscreen use may negatively impact their developing attention but this fear is not based on empirical evidence.”