Find out how you're harming your kid with screen time

Screen time is affecting your toddler more than you know.

Children exposed to high levels of screen time before age two showed changes in brain development that were linked to slower decision-making and increased anxiety by their teenage years.

This research was done by Asst Prof Tan Ai Peng and her team from A*STAR Institute for Human Development and Potential (A*STAR IHDP) and National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, using data from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort.

Published in eBioMedicine, the study tracked the same children over more than a decade, with brain imaging at multiple time points.

They mapped a possible biological pathway from infant screen exposure to adolescent mental health.

The study focuses on infancy, a period when brain development is most rapid and especially sensitive to environmental influences.

Furthermore, the amount and type of screen exposure in infancy are largely determined by parenting practices as well as parental and caregiver awareness, which calls for early guidance and intervention.

Children with higher infant screen time showed an accelerated maturation of brain networks responsible for visual processing and cognitive control.

The researchers suggest this may result from the intense sensory stimulation that screens provide. Notably, screen time measured at ages three and four did not show the same effects, revealing that infancy is a particularly sensitive period.

“Accelerated maturation happens when certain brain networks develop too fast, often in response to adversity or other stimuli. During normal development, brain networks gradually become more specialised over time. However, in children with high screen exposure, the networks controlling vision and cognition specialised faster, before they had developed the efficient connections needed for complex thinking. This can limit flexibility and resilience, leaving the child less able to adapt later in life,” said Dr. Huang Pei, the study's first author.