Children and Media
Prevalence of Screen Media
Children are spending considerable time engaging with screen media.
Children aged 5-16 in the UK spend an average of 6.3 hours per day on screen time.
2-3 hours watching television.
1-3 hours on the internet.
1-2 hours playing video games.
Over 1 hour on mobile phones (excluding talk time).
Social media app usage among children in the UK has increased by 130% since the beginning of the pandemic.
Increased screen time is also attributed to home-schooling.
In Canada (2020), 8-year-olds spent an average of more than five hours a day on screens for leisure, in addition to screen time needed for schoolwork.
Media Use by Age: A Snapshot
3-4 years:
17% have their own mobile phone.
Online Activities:
39% use a mobile phone.
78% use a tablet.
10% use a laptop.
89% use video sharing platforms.
32% use live streaming apps/sites.
50% use messaging sites/apps.
21% use social media, and 24% have their own social media profile.
18% play games online.
81% watch TV or films on any type of device other than a TV set (85% on a TV set).
47% watch live TV vs 72% who watch SVOD.
5-7 years:
28% have their own mobile phone.
Online Activities:
50% use a mobile phone.
83% use a tablet.
27% use a laptop.
93% use video sharing platforms.
39% use live streaming apps/sites.
59% use messaging sites/apps.
33% use social media, and 33% have their own social media profile.
38% play games online.
74% watch TV or films on any type of device other than a TV set (88% on a TV set).
48% watch live TV vs 77% who watch SVOD.
8-11 years:
60% have their own mobile phone.
Online Activities:
71% use a mobile phone.
79% use a tablet.
55% use a laptop.
95% use video sharing platforms.
54% use live streaming apps/sites.
84% use messaging sites/apps.
64% use social media, and 60% have their own social media profile.
69% play games online.
79% watch TV or films on any type of device other than a TV set (90% on a TV set).
51% watch live TV vs 76% who watch SVOD.
32% have seen something worrying or nasty online.
32% were able to correctly identify sponsored search results.
12-15 years:
97% have their own mobile phone.
Online Activities:
94% use a mobile phone.
54% use a tablet.
63% use a laptop.
98% use video sharing platforms.
73% use live streaming apps/sites.
97% use messaging sites/apps.
91% use social media, and 89% have their own social media profile.
76% play games online.
87% watch TV or films on any type of device other than a TV set (84% on a TV set).
44% watch live TV vs 82% who watch SVOD.
37% have seen something worrying or nasty online.
11% picked only reliable indicators that a social media post was genuine; 83% picked at least one unreliable indicator.
64% were able to correctly spot a fake profile.
38% were able to correctly identify sponsored search results.
39% were able to correctly identify sponsored content posted by an influencer.
16-17 years:
100% have their own mobile phone.
Online Activities:
98% use a mobile phone.
50% use a tablet.
63% use a laptop.
98% use video sharing platforms.
79% use live streaming apps/sites.
99% use messaging sites/apps.
97% use social media, and 94% have their own social media profile.
73% play games online.
85% watch TV or films on any type of device other than a TV set (82% on a TV set).
44% watch live TV vs 79% who watch SVOD.
42% have seen something worrying or nasty online.
13% picked only reliable indicators that a social media post was genuine; 81% picked at least one unreliable indicator.
65% were able to correctly spot a fake profile.
44% were able to correctly identify sponsored search results.
48% were able to correctly identify sponsored content posted by an influencer.
Types of Modern Media Children are Exposed To
Screen Media:
Television shows
Films
Video sharing platforms/YouTube
Apps for smartphones/tablets
Video games
E-books
Other Types:
Books
Podcasts
Factors to Consider Regarding Children Learning From Screen Media
Child-level factors:
Age
Individual characteristics
Family (e.g., SES)
Social context
Media-level factors:
Type of screen media
Editing pace
Content
Environmental factors:
Type of exposure
Presence of caregiver
Outcomes of Interest
Language
Executive function
Academic performance
Literacy and numeracy skills
Prosocial behavior
Do Young Children Learn from Video?
One possible reason is that events on video often are an inaccurate representation of the “real world."
Even when an on-screen situation is realistic, young children often have difficulty learning from video.
Infants have trouble learning from video.
Infants have trouble learning from video; Imitation task (Barr & Hayne, 1999).
How do we develop language?
Powerful computational strategies that advance early language learning.
Speech learning is severely limited in absence of social interaction.
Kuhl (2007) - test of whether 9-month-old infants can learn phonetically from first time to a foreign language exposure at 9 months.
Live exposure vs TV exposure vs Audio exposure vs control (no exposure).
Maintained the ability to discriminate Mandarin speech sounds at 10-12 months.
Equivalent to NO exposure to Mandarin: could not differentiate Mandarin sounds at 10-12 months.
Conclusion: Linguistic (Cognitive) development is affected by social interaction.
Learning from Video: Infants
Robb, Richert & Wartella (2009) 12 to 15-month-old infants who viewed a commercial DVD (designed for word learning) for 6 weeks did not have increased expressive or receptive vocabulary – relied on parent report.
BUT, 56% of parents say baby videos “positively affect development” (p. 7, Rideout, 2007).
Parents may not be the best source of information about what babies are learning from video.
Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff (2007) Correlational study.
Interviewed parents (n = 1008) of 2-24-month-olds by telephone to ask about babies’ viewing habits.
Parents also completed a vocabulary checklist for the child (MacArthur CDI).
For infants (under 16mo), each hour a day of viewing was associated with 17-pt drop in vocabulary score.
No such association for toddlers.
Baby Video Study (DeLoache et al., 2010)
Participants: 72 infants (12 – 18 months; M =14.7 months.)
Video with parent interaction
Video with no interaction
Parent-teaching from a word list (no video)
Control (no teaching; no video)
Initial visit: Tested infants on 13 words from the video - the words that the infant did not know became their individualized “target” list.
Final visit: Tested infants on their individual set of target words.
Presented the objects in one order and then again in the reverse order - infants had to choose the object correctly both times to be credited as learning the word.
Results: Significant difference between groups (X^2 (3, N = 72) = 10.03, p < .05)
Parent Teaching significantly better than all three other groups.
Parents’ assessment:
Significant correlation between how much parents liked the video and how much they thought their children learned (r = .64, p <.01)
But no correlation between how much parents thought children learned and how well they did on the post-test
Parents may overestimate what their children are learning from video
Infants learn very little from baby videos; learn significantly more through parent-child interaction
Learning From Video: Toddlers
Search Task (Troseth, Saylor, & Archer, 2006)
24-month-olds followed the instructions of a person who addressed them directly to find a hidden toy.
1/3 as likely to use the same information offered by the same person on video.
However, when the person on video interacted responsively with toddlers (through CCTV), they were able to learn the information presented.
Word Learning (Roseberry et al., 2013)
Toddlers learned novel verbs via live contingent interaction OR video contingent interaction (using Skype) but not via pre- recorded video.
Learning from Videos that were INTERACTIVE.
Toddlers & Video Summary
Thus, toddlers learned from videos that were INTERACTIVE.
But, not realistic to always use FaceTime or Zoom. Can children learn educational content from pre-recorded video?
What if the interaction is ”surrounding” video? Such as interaction between parent + child while WATCHING (more similar to storybook reading)?
Content Matters
Age appropriate
Interactive (Dora the Explorer) or storybook-like (Clifford or Dragon Tales) better than fast-paced or adult-directed programming.
Preschoolers and Television
Lots of evidence that children in the 3- to 5- year age range learn from Sesame Street
Watching the program as a preschooler relates to higher test scores in high school
Children’s Television Workshop carried out research every year since Sesame Street began
Results:
A moderate amount of media use was related to larger language gains
High use was related to smaller gains
Relationship between children's media use and gains in first graders' language and literacy skills
N = 488, assessed in spring of kindergarten and spring of first grade
Parents reported on hours children used in both interactive and non-interactive media.
What About Background Television?
3-year-olds spend an average of about 5.5 hours in the presence of background TV
Studies suggest that:
Solitary toy play: Amount of time spent playing with toys was ½ as long when background TV was on than for kids who had no background TV on.
Background TV reduces attention during play.
Parents less responsive to children’s bids for attention
Background TV exposure is associated with negative cognitive and language outcomes
Reduced language input & reduced “richness” of language
Longitudinal Studies:
Increased background TV at 6 months predicted decreased cognitive & language development at 14 months.
Increased background TV at 1 year old negatively predicted executive function at 4 yrs.
Does Screen Media Affect Social Skills?
Screen media exposure and theory of mind (Mar, Tackett, & Moore, 2010)
Measured correlation between media exposure (storybooks, movies, television) and children’s theory of mind development.
Measured via ‘inferred exposure’.
Inferred storybook and movie exposure positively predicted theory of mind, whereas TV exposure did not.
Investigated the effects of different types of prosocial media on preschoolers’ (n = 121) emotion regulation and recognition
Groups either played with the DTN app + watched control show played DTN app + watched DTN show played control app + watched control show
Promoting Preschoolers’ Emotional Competence Through Prosocial TV and Mobile App Use
Emotion regulation measured by parent report.
A Meta-Analysis of Prosocial Media on Prosocial Behavior, Aggression, and Empathic Concern: A Multidimensional Approach “[A]cross the 72 studies, 17,134 participants and 243 unique effect sizes were assessed, and findings suggested that prosocial media was positively associated with prosocial behaviour and empathic concern and negatively associated with aggression.” – Coyne et al (2018, p. 342)
Does Screen Media Affect Cognitive Process?
Educational vs. entertainment television? Lillard & Peterson (2011)
Measured impact of short-term exposure to fast-paced vs. educational TV on children’s executive function skills.
Watch a fast paced TV show clip for 9 minutes “fantastical cartoon about a sponge that lives under the sea”.
Watch an educational TV show clip for 9 minutes “a realistic cartoon about a typical US preschool-aged boy".
Self-paced activity Draw for 9 minutes.
Executive function tasks:
TOWER OF HANOI Task for problem solving
HEAD TOES KNEES SHOULDERS (HKTS) Task of self-regulation
DELAY OF GRATIFICATION Task for inhibitory control
BACKWARD DIGIT SPAN Working memory
The type of show seems to matter
Does Screen Time Influence Mental Imagery?
Reduction hypothesis: viewing content on screens does not require active mental image construction.
Stimulation hypothesis: screen content primarily stimulates 2 modalities (visual and auditory), but not others (motor, haptic, proprioceptive).
“TV provides the viewer with ready-made visual images and thus does not provide viewers with practice in generating their own visual images.” (Valkenburg & van der Voort, 1994)
Suggate & Martzog (2020)
Longitudinal cross-lagged study with 266 children (ages 3 to 9) measuring relation between screen time and mental imagery over 10 months.
Sample item: “which is shinier: a trumpet or a violin?”
Screen time at time 1 predicts mental imagery at time 2
Screen Time During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in children and adolescents spending more time on digital screen devices, eliciting a profound effect on their cardio-metabolic health.
Independent of PA, significant association found between ST and MetS (a set of cardio- metabolic risk factors that includes glucose intolerance, central obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia). (Musa et al, 2022)
The Netherlands - Children were less physically active, and screen time was higher during and after the school closures due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Covid-19 has had a lasting effect on increased screen time and decrease physical activity on children aged 7 –12.
How does dialogic reading over video chat compare to more traditional forms in promoting comprehension and vocabulary learning?
Conditions – video chat/live/pre-recorded
Results – no differences between conditions across six different outcome measures
Suggests children learn from the story similarly across formats
So…do children learn from screen media?
It depends!
What is the age of the child?
Infant? No.
Toddler? Probably not.
Preschooler or older? Perhaps.
What type of screen media are they viewing?
Educational
Contingent
Entertainment
Future Directions
Educational screen media appears to be beneficial in a number of ways for preschoolers and older.
Children are spending more time in front of screens.
With new media, it will be important to study the impact on different types of development.
Here's a breakdown of the studies mentioned in the notes:
Barr & Hayne (1999): Imitation task with infants
This study demonstrated that infants have trouble learning from video, suggesting that direct, real-world experiences are more effective for learning at that age.
Kuhl (2007): Mandarin speech sound discrimination
This study showed that 9-month-old infants could learn phonetic sounds from a foreign language (Mandarin) only through live interaction, not through TV or audio exposure. It highlights the importance of social interaction in early language learning.
Robb, Richert & Wartella (2009): Commercial DVD word learning
This study found that 12 to 15-month-old infants who watched a commercial DVD designed for word learning for 6 weeks did not show increased vocabulary, indicating that passive video viewing is not effective for language acquisition.
Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff (2007): Vocabulary checklist study
This correlational study found that for infants under 16 months, each hour of daily video viewing was associated with a 17-point drop in vocabulary score. This suggests a negative impact of screen time on early language development.
DeLoache et al. (2010): Baby video study
This study compared the effectiveness of video with parent interaction, video with no interaction, parent-teaching from a word list, and a control group. Results showed that parent teaching was significantly more effective than all other methods, reinforcing the importance of direct interaction over video learning.
Troseth, Saylor, & Archer (2006): Search Task
This study found that 24-month-olds were less likely to follow instructions from a person on video compared to the same person addressing them directly. However, learning improved when the video interaction was responsive and interactive (through CCTV).
Roseberry et al. (2013): Word Learning
This study showed that toddlers learned novel verbs via live, contingent interaction or video contingent interaction (using Skype) but not via pre-recorded video, further emphasizing the importance of interactive and responsive communication.
Lillard & Peterson (2011): Executive function skills
This study measured the impact of short-term exposure to fast-paced vs. educational TV on children’s executive function skills, finding that the type of show matters. Fast-paced shows may negatively impact cognitive functions compared to educational content.
Mar, Tackett, & Moore (2010): Screen media exposure and theory of mind
This study found that exposure to storybooks and movies positively predicted theory of mind, whereas TV exposure did not, suggesting that different types of media have varying effects on cognitive development.
Coyne et al (2018): A Meta-Analysis of Prosocial Media on Prosocial Behavior, Aggression, and Empathic Concern
This meta-analysis of 72 studies with 17,134 participants discovering that prosocial media was positively associated with prosocial behaviour and empathic concern and negatively associated with aggression.
11.
Okay, here's a simplified summary to help you remember the key studies, along with some potential exam essay questions based on the notes:
Study Summaries - Easy to Remember
Barr & Hayne (1999) - Imitation Task:
Summary: Babies don't learn from screens; they need real-life actions.
Mnemonic: "Barr" sounds like "barren" – a screen is barren for baby's learning.
Kuhl (2007) - Mandarin Speech:
Summary: Social interaction is key for language; screens alone don't cut it.
Mnemonic: "Kuhl" sounds like "cool" – it's cool to learn languages socially.
Robb, Richert & Wartella (2009) - Commercial DVD:
Summary: Baby DVDs don't boost vocab; passive viewing doesn't work.
Mnemonic: "Robb" sounds like "robbed" – DVDs rob babies of learning.
Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff (2007) - Vocabulary Checklist:
Summary: More screen time = less vocab for infants.
Mnemonic: "Zimmerman" sounds like "zimmer frame" – screen time frames vocab.
DeLoache et al. (2010) - Baby Video Study:
Summary: Parent interaction beats video; teaching > screens.
Mnemonic: "DeLoache" sounds like "the coach" – parents coach learning best.
Troseth, Saylor, & Archer (2006) - Search Task:
Summary: Toddlers need real people, not just videos, to follow instructions.
Mnemonic: "Troseth" sounds like "trousers" – can't find the toy in your trousers looking at the screen.
Roseberry et al. (2013) - Word Learning:
Summary: Interactive video (like Skype) can work, but not pre-recorded.
Mnemonic: "Roseberry" sounds like "rows of berries"– interactive rows of berries are better than still images.
Lillard & Peterson (2011) - Executive Function:
Summary: Fast-paced TV hurts focus; content matters.
Mnemonic: "Lillard" sounds like "lullard" – avoid the lull of fast-paced shows.
Mar, Tackett, & Moore (2010) - Theory of Mind:
Summary: Storybooks and movies good, TV not so much for empathy.
Mnemonic: "Mar" sounds like "star" – star in a movie is better than TV for empathy.
Coyne et al (2018) - Prosocial Media Meta-Analysis:
Summary: Prosocial media boosts good behavior, less aggression.
Mnemonic: "Coyne" sounds like "coin" – prosocial media earns you good coins.
Exam Essay Questions
The Role of Social Interaction:
Question: "Discuss the importance of social interaction in early language and cognitive development, referencing studies such as Kuhl (2007) and DeLoache et al. (2010). How do these studies inform our understanding of screen media's impact on infants and toddlers?"
Content vs. Format:
Question: "Compare and contrast the effects of different types of screen media (e.g., educational vs. fast-paced entertainment) on cognitive functions, citing evidence from Lillard & Peterson (2011) and Mar, Tackett, & Moore (2010). What implications do these findings have for parents and educators?"
Interactive Media:
Question: "Evaluate the potential benefits and drawbacks of interactive media for toddlers, drawing on research by Roseberry et al. (2013) and Troseth, Saylor, & Archer (2006). Under what conditions can screen time be a valuable learning tool for young children?"
Long-Term Effects:
Question: "Analyze the long-term effects of screen media exposure on cognitive and social development, referencing studies like Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff (2007) and Coyne et al. (2018). What strategies can be implemented to mitigate potential negative impacts?"
How to Remember Studies
Use Mnemonics: Create associations between study names and key findings.
Group Studies by Theme: Organize studies by common themes (e.g., social interaction, content type, age group).
Create Flashcards: Make flashcards with study names on one side and summaries on the other.
Practice Explaining: Explain the studies to someone else to reinforce your understanding.
Relate to Real Life: Think about how