Messmer and other hypnotists can tremble. Hypnosis is no longer their preserve! Tablets, computers and other screens also seem to have super powers to absorb your children. Admittedly, on a car trip or to spend a quiet morning, this can have some advantages.
A benefit to put in perspective, however, unlike the famous Canadian hypnotist, this practice is not without consequences for the health of your little treasures. This has just been confirmed by French researchers from Inserm.
Their study looked at the effects of screens by observing a cohort of small Bretons (in France). The first group consisted of 167 children aged 3.5 to 6.5 years, diagnosed with primary language disorders. The second group included 109 children with no language impairment.
This is known in research as the “control” group.
Important note, children whose language impairment was due to pathologies or disabilities (prematurity, congenital disease, neurological, psychiatric or hearing disorders), as well as those whose parents did not speak French were excluded from the list of selected.
The participating parents had to complete a questionnaire aimed at collecting information about their child and his relationship to the screens. More precisely, the questions concerned the type of screens, multiple exposure, access to and possession of screens, the first exposure, etc.
First conclusion: in this study, 94.2% of the children of the two groups had access to television, half to a tablet and a third to a computer, a game console or a smartphone.
They spent, on average, 1h15 a day in front of a screen. In short, we are not talking here about so-called “exceptional” consumption!
But what is probably the most shocking in this analysis is the precociousness of the exposure since 83.3% of these children had been exposed to screens before the age of 2 years.
With what risks? This is precisely the point on which we learn Manon Colle, the main author of the work. “It is not the time spent in front of the screens, on average twenty minutes in the morning, but the time of day that has an impact,” she explained to Agence France Presse (AFP).
“It will exhaust their attention and make them less able to learn,” she added.
In figures, the scientist reveals that children from both groups who were exposed to the screens in the morning before school were three times more likely to develop primary language disorders.
This included all primary language disorders: from simple language delay to developmental dysphasia.
Worse, when children rarely, if ever, interacted with the content of their screens, they were six times more likely to develop primary language impairment.
So, from there to incriminate the French and their model of education, there is only one step. Not to be crossed since in reality, in this area, the French are more like good students … or rather good parents.
Indeed, in other international studies having established associations between screens and the appearance of language disorders, children had been exposed to it for the first time between 7 and 9 months. For French children, this initiation would rather be between 15 and 16 months, fairly close to the age limit set from 2 years by the WHO.
In light of their discovery, these scientists would like to emphasize that exposure to screens in young children is a public health problem.
The team therefore believes that early childhood health professionals have an important role to play in educating parents about the dangers of technology. A salutary prevention in front of the screen… of commercial smoke of certain manufacturers. For them, technology is good, but if you fall into the pot from childhood, it’s even better!
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