Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-17-2025

Abstract

Spending time on devices (screen time) has become normal in day-to-day life, however our understanding of how this may affect development in early childhood is not yet fully understood. This paper explores the relationship between screen time and early childhood cognitive development, utilizing a definition of cognitive development as the growth of how children think, learn, communicate, and develop an understanding about the things around them. Research findings so far indicate that there may be both positives and negatives with screen time. For example, a child’s screen time may be positively and negatively correlated to vocabulary and language development specifically, however not significantly correlated with early childhood cognitive development overall. Associations found thus far have been generally weak though, and studies indicate that multiple factors are likely at play. Further study is needed to better understand the relationship between screen time and early childhood cognitive development, particularly within the context of emerging technologies.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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