Does digital media use contribute to decreased expressive language skills of pre-school-aged children? An exploratory study in Portuguese children

Abstract

Purpose/Aim of the study The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between digital media use and expressive language skills in the semantic and morphosyntactic domains, of pre-school-aged children (3 years-and-0 months to 5 years-and-11 months).

Materials and methods Verbal oral expression (VOE) tasks of the Pre-school Assessment of Language Test (Teste de Linguagem-Avaliação da Linguagem Pré-Escolar) were administered to 237 pre-school children with no previous identified neurological or developmental conditions associated with language disorders to assess expressive language skills in the semantic and morphosyntactic domains. Parents completed a questionnaire about their children’s medical conditions, development (using the milestones of the Survey of Well-being of Young Children and the Pre-school Paediatric Symptom Checklist), and exposure to screens (using ScreenQ). Correlations between VOE and continuous variables such as ScreenQ were computed and a regression model incorporating all variables significantly associated with total language verbal expression was created.

Results ScreenQ revealed a negative and significant correlation with children’s verbal oral expression as well as significance in the regression model. Parents’ education was the most significant predictor in this regression model.

Conclusions This study emphasizes the importance of parents establishing limits for digital media use and promote good practices such as co-viewing.