Children who spend a lot of time in front of screens are more likely to fail academically health

A 15-year study showed that children who spend a long time in front of electronic screens are at greater risk of failing to achieve their academic ambitions.

A team of researchers in hospitals in Canada said: “Spending a lot of time in front of screens in early childhood is associated with lower children’s scores in reading and mathematics,” while their writing skills were largely unaffected.

The team found that a child spending one hour a day in front of a screen “is associated with a 10% decrease in the likelihood of achieving higher academic levels,” after comparing parents’ data on the time a child spends in front of a screen with the performance of about 3,300 students in the Canadian city of Ontario on reading and mathematics tests.

The study results were published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open and indicate the need for “early interventions to reduce screen time” to help “improve academic achievement in elementary school,” according to the researchers.

“Screen time is part of most families’ daily lives, and prolonged exposure, especially to television and digital media, can have a measurable impact on children’s academic achievement,” said Katherine Perkin of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

The findings provide “important insights into how early childhood experiences — such as screen time — affect academic achievement,” says Jennifer Huff, director of the Office of Education Quality and Accountability, which administers the school-based tests used in the study.

The team pointed out the need for more research to determine the extent to which the impact on academic achievement varies in light of the variation in the time each child spends in front of the screen, in addition to “the type of content that children watch.”