ReviewBrain sciences2023
The Relationship between Language and Technology: How Screen Time Affects Language Development in Early Life-A Systematic Review.
Review in Brain sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impact of the Use of Interactive Screens on Language Development in Children up to 6 Years of Age: A Systematic Review.Child: care, health and development · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of touchscreen digital exposure on children's social development and communication: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Associations Between Early Screen Exposure and Neurocognitive Outcomes in Children Aged 2-5 Years: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Prolonged screen time is associated with increased prevalence of sleep disorders in children.European journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- Operationalizing brain rot on TikTok through linguistic, structural, and behavioral indicators of low-cognitive-value media content.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Association Between Media Use and Development in Preschool: Moderation by Maternal Education.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Article
- Associations of adolescent social media use trajectories with spatial and verbal memory: a prospective cohort study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Article
- Executive Functioning as a Mediator Between Digital Media Exposure and Communication Outcomes in Children and Adolescents.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Solitary Screen Time Exacerbates Later Socioemotional Problems in Young Children with Oral Language Difficulties.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Screen Time, Digital Content Quality, and Parental Mediation as Predictors of Linguistic and Pragmatic Development: Implications for Pediatric and Preventive Health.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Effect of Screen Time on Language Development Among Toddlers and Preschool Children in Al Qatif, Saudi Arabia.Cureus · 2026Article
- ADHD comorbidity in preschoolers with developmental language disorder: comparative neurodevelopmental profiles and associated risk factors.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Impact of Screen Time on Language Development and Vocabulary Acquisition in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- Article
- Digital Media Use and Screen Time Exposure Among Youths: A Lifestyle-Based Public Health Concern.Cureus · 2025Review
- How Is the Digital Age Shaping Young Minds? A Rapid Systematic Review of Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents with Exposure to ICT.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Bridging the gap: the impact of parental education and child leisure activities on cognitive and socioemotional skills in preschoolers.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Analysis of the impact of parents' electronic screen time habits, young children's screen exposure and parent-child interaction on language development delay in young children.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Screen use in children - two sides of the coin: a critical narrative review.Dementia & neuropsychologia · 2025Review
- The effectiveness of therapist-led family-centered language intervention for children with language delay.Translational pediatrics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Screen time refers to the amount of time a child is exposed to a screen, that is, television, computer, smartphone, or any other digital medium. Prolonged screen time in the first years of life may affect a child's cognitive abilities, especially language acquisition. A systematic review was conducted, following the PRISMA-P guidelines, with the aim to explore the available literature relating to the impact of screen time on children's language development. This review identified 18 articles. The articles reviewed showed that prolonged screen time and exposure to screens in the first 2 years of life can negatively affect language development and communication skills, in terms of comprehension and vocabulary range. In addition, overexposure to screens in the early years can affect overall cognitive development, especially attention to environmental stimuli, social experiences, problem solving, and communication with others, e.g., the alternance of rhythms and roles in a conversation. In conclusion, our systematic review supports the idea that preschool screen time has negative effects on children's cognitive and language development. Television seems to be the medium most detrimental to children's skills, as it is used in a passive manner and is often characterised by language and content that do not suit the child's processing mode. Future studies should increasingly focus on the digital media that children possess at an early age, such as mobile phones and tablets, and on how children relate to the online world, such as social networks.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.