Detrimental to a child’s cognitive development, warns study.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Increasingly more children across the United States are picking up and using smartphones, some even as young as 6 months old, according to a new study conducted by pediatric researchers at the Einstein Healthcare Network.
Experts warn, however, that the habit could be detrimental to a child’s cognitive development, despite the claims made by cellphone “learning apps,” according to The Washington Post.
“Advertising claims that touch screen devices can successfully teach number concepts and counting to babies as young as 6 months are deceptive,” wrote Herbert Ginsburg, a psychology professor at Columbia University.
Researchers recently surveyed 370 parents of children ages 6 months to 4 years old as they visited a pediatric clinic for a low-income, minority community in Philadelphia — 74 percent of respondents were African American and 14 percent were Hispanic. The study, which was presented on Saturday at an American Academy of Pediatrics conference, comprised of 20 questions that gauged when a parent first exposed their child a to mobile media device. It found that more than a third of kids under 1 year of age are already using smartphones and tablets.
Among kids younger than 1 year, 52 percent had watched television on mobile devices, 36 percent had been allowed to scroll the screen, 15 percent used apps and 12 percent played video games. Almost a quarter of the kids under 1 year old had already called someone.
“We didn’t expect children were using the devices from the age of 6 months,” said Hilda Kabali, a third-year resident at Einstein who led the survey. “Some children were on the screen for as long as 30 minutes.”
While not a comprehensive scientific study, the survey bolsters a trend seen in other polls — children are beginning to use smartphones and tablets at an ever decreasing age.
“In 2013, an Internet survey of 1,463 parents found that, among kids under 2, 38 percent had used smartphones or tablets,” noted The Post. “That was the same percentage as among kids 8 and younger during a similar survey in 2011.”