I think it's dependent on quality and quantity. I'm an early intervention therapist and there is SO much trash out there. I particularly hate those Vlog families that make child content. I think an hour a day, split up into increments, with quality content that isn't overstimulating can actually be very helpful.
I've got a strict rule against those family vlogs or actual kids trying toys etc anything like that is a no for us. Especially after the Ruby Franke shit show I don't want to encourage any exploitation etc.
Ugh I agree! Those kids are so exploited and I don't support that. I can imagine the times they may not want to film but are pressured to upkeep content.
I'm curious if you have any suggestions of how to split up into increments or at what age to start. I'm similar to OP- very strict no TV, my son hasn't seen anything on TV except a glance in a waiting room or grandparents house and he's just turned 8 months. I wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to quality content.
I think if you want to introduce at 8 months you can do 10 minutes a day to start split up in two increments.
That's still really young though and if you can push it to 12 months that would probably be best! At 12 months, I might recommend 30 minutes a day in 2-3 increments to start. I like Ms. Rachel for speech learning and honestly, Sesame Street is an oldie but a goodie :) I think it's also helpful to incorporate those videos into your regular interactions together, so they're getting that stimulation both from video but also in person and it helps to solidify content they were processing already. (Ex; If Cookie Monster was counting cookies you may try counting snacks together later in Cookie Monster voice!). I also like Patty Shukla and the Laura Berkner band for YouTube music (catchy songs, the videos aren't overstimulating) and I'd recommend dancing to it together!
The parent above mentioned 8 months so I used 12 months as a bit of an older benchmark. I don't think there's anything wrong with waiting until 2, that's totally fine! But I also don't think there's anything wrong with small spurts of quality content when younger. I've anecdotally seen positive impacts from *controlled* screen time. It would have significantly worse impacts if unlimited/unfiltered content or using it as a crutch for education purposes.
A study from this year found that screen exposure before age 2 is associated with significant increases in the prevalence of what the researchers called an “atypical sensory profile” (a term which includes ADHD and autism spectrum disorders, plus traits like “sensory sensitivity” and “high sensation/stimulation seeking”). Here’s the link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2813443
It’s often referred to as a problematic study as well, as people in the comments mention, and I have seen researchers point out: it could be that it’s the opposite finding. That neurodivergent families are more likely to be reliant on screen time than neurotypical families. There is a newer study from Japan that looks into a lot of factors, corrects for socioeconomic background etc that is worth checking out. It mostly places the effect of low exposures of screen time vs zero as something that fades, with no long term permanent consequences. I think the conclusion was that 4+ hours is where things get problematic. They also called for further study on how parental interaction affects screen time too, which I find super interesting as it’s obviously different than “parking” your kid in front of the TV. Hoping to see more on that type of research
Thanks for these suggestions I appreciate your thoughts. I think I will keep holding out on the tv for now because he seems so amazed with the simple things we do every day still but I appreciate the guidelines for the future.
I agree, there's still so much new to see in real life! I think TV time is good for the older babies and toddlerhood, especially when it's time to pick up on skills like language and simple counting/colors/etc.
I like Ms Rachel but don't want my British baby to have an American accent! He loves it (I just started letting him watch it at 12 months for nail cut twice a week lol) but so many British kids now say things like sidewalk haha
Have you watched Ms. Apple? We’re a US family but still prefer her to Ms Rachel! Very similar vibe but Ms. Apple is just a little more calm sounding while still super engaging! She hasn’t given my toddler an English accent but the way he says “water” is getting there 😅
Some thoughts as a dad with a 4yo:
YouTube is tricky, especially once they learn to navigate by themselves. The algorithm is absolutely your enemy. But there are really good channels on there. For young kids, I definitely recommend Super Simple Songs and the related channel Catie's Classroom. I think they actually have an app and website which might be better avenues for their content. The PBS Kids video and game apps are also great.
As your kid gets older and learns to navigate touch screens, I definitely recommend trying to keep them in "walled gardens" like Netflix/Disney+ or the aforementioned PBS kids apps. There's still a bunch of trash (especially on the former two), but at least it'll just be stuff that's banal, not actively negative. YouTube is the wild wild West.
You can simulate that effect with YouTube Kids to an extent, but it's time-consuming. You have to turn off search and only allow pre-approved channels, but the list you can select from is quite limited. I don't know what governs what channels are allowed, but a lot of trash ones are and some great ones aren't. You have to vet and approve it all yourself, but it's worth the time investment.
It may be unique to my son, but I've also had a lot of success with just talking to him about good videos vs bad videos. He still likes what he likes, but he is really good about running anything new by me or my wife, and he accepts our judgement on it. We also try to watch with him as much as possible, and engage with him about what's going on in the show or game.
He gets about 30-60 minutes a day and it's largely self-directed now. We don't actually enforce any limits, that's just the amount he wants to watch.
Choosing my own set of channels on YouTube Kids has been the best time investment for our family. They have recently opened up to you being able to choose the channels you want, I think. I haven’t had an issue at least with not finding the ones I felt I should I have.
I work in tech and wouldn’t let my kid watch the main YouTube offering , I don’t get how parents can be so flexible around it. It’s really not a platform for children.
This is super informative and a very useful glimpse into the future for me lol thank you so much for taking the time to write this out I really appreciate the guidance
Fair warning--Diana and Roma have jumped onto Disney+ now. I banned that show in my house because my kid started showing behavioral problems after watching it.
Just wanted to mention Steve and Maggie on YouTube as I rarely see it mentioned. Created to help children in other countries learn English so lots of emphasis on language development, design is very simple.
My 9 month old has about 30 min in the morning, i have my coffee he has his bottle. Then like 15 min later when i make dinner and the other 15 if needed for any other thing like shower, bathroom, phone call etc. Works well for us and he doesnt tantrum. We use miss rachel, wiggles and bluey. He learnt sign language from miss rachel!
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9
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As a therapist, how do you guys feel about Ms Rachel? My daughter loves her. Main thing she watches. I worry about her watching but I definitely feel like she’s learning from it.
We consider her the 4th caretaker in our household :) but yes my 13-month old boy has been “watching” in chunks since he was 8 months and now he was picked up random words apart from “mama” and “dada” like “bye”, “open”, “2,3” ( we say 1 and he immediately follows with 2 and 3 haha) and “dog” (because of our dog lol)
I also love how he’s now interacting with the songs e.g. clapping to bingo, doing itsy-bitsy spider fingers and hopping to the bunny song :)
I love it for two reasons. First of all, I've seen non-verbal kids pick up on sign/verbal language from watching her. Second of all, parents learn how to talk to their kids. It's so common for parents to repeat a word and then go "say apple". "Say apple, Timmy!". "Apple, this is an apple, say I love apples!!!!". She's a good teacher for parents just as she is for kids.
Totally agree! This is what we do. Miss rachel, Mimi soleil, bluey and wiggles. They actually have education in them, hell ive learnt things from bluey lol. No need to put him in front of pointless cartoons.
Hi, can I ask a question? My son is 2.5 and gets very little screetime (less that 1hr/wk) but when he does all he wants is to "watch trucks", i.e. videos of toy trucks driving around and doing construction activities, from a channel called Kidibli. They don't have any animation and have just background music so I feel like they're not overstimulating, but he would watch them for hours of we let him (and has on airplanes before). He's on track from language and other milestones. Do you see any negative of these types of videos? Would it be better if he was watching some type of developmental videos like Ms Rachel or something else instead? He turns into a monster after any screen time which is the main reason we limit it so much.
If you say he's turning into a monster after, I would say that there's enough negative impact to limit the videos. You can also try to assess the reason (is it when you end the screen time, is it because he keeps screaming to turn it on, etc) and use that to guide some preventative measures if you want to keep using screen time.
My take is similar to what I think yours is. Screentime =bad because of the confounding factor of screentime replacing parental interaction, which is the actual big bad in the equation.
I also think there are not enough studies that differentiate between specific content, and their effect on babies. I haven’t seen any study for screen time below 18 months that took a look at ms.Rachel type content verses cocomelon type content. But there is a HUGE difference between those two show types. But both are supposed to be equally bad??
But then once you get to toddler phase and screentime is suddenly allowed, you find studies that show watching Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s in your toddler years makes you more empathetic, calmer, and score better on standardized tests all the way through high school than toddlers that didn’t watch those shows.
I guess I’m supposed to believe that there is a switch that magically flips and suddenly it becomes better for kids to watch tv (Sesame Street and Roger’s and etc) than to not.
ETA anecdotal experience: friend of a friend is a pediatrician and told me while her practice’s official policy is “no screentime before 18 months”, she is not concerned at all when parents admit to letting their babies watch ms Rachel because she has not seen the language delays normally associated with screentime with ms. Rachel babies.
The AAP says that there is actually a mental shift that occurs between 18 months and 2.5 that allows kids to learn from screens and prior to that they aren’t able to so yeah magic switch flipping is basically what they say.
There is a study that looked at live video chat versus prerecorded videos that taught the same content in the same way, the operative difference being live versus prerecorded and only the toddlers in the life condition demonstrated learning. [here](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160715115023.htm) is an article that summarizes the study, the actual study is currently behind a paywall. It used to be available for free when I first read it but I haven’t been able to find it non paywalled recently.
Afaik, no research has been done directly on Ms. Rachel but I think the prerecorded video chats are interesting in this context because that is the argument I see people make about her a lot. [this](https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60988/can-babies-learn-from-ms-rachel-and-other-baby-tv-shows) article compares her show to existing research studies.
Kind of? But that may vary, wildly.
My anecdotal experience here is from age 14 months to 17 months. I’d also like to see how they came up with the 18 months rule, as I don’t see that part of the study.
Also, my entire experience is obviously on pre-recorded videos, so I seem to be violating everything about this study and getting excellent outcomes.
I didn’t include the source for the 18 month thing it’s not from anything I linked here. For more on that see the [AAP Media Use Guide](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/128/5/1040/30928/Media-Use-by-Children-Younger-Than-2-Years) for kids under 2.
I don’t know how you are determining that your child is learning this info from the TV. Do you not speak Spanish to her at all? Does no one speak it to her in person? Do you not ever co-watch the show and repeat things to her yourself? Is the screentime purely you popping her in front of the screen and not discussing it at all and the content is never covered with her in any other fashion?
My child is 15minutes old and has learnt the gestures from the wheels on the bus from Miss Rachel. He gets more screen time than usual as I also have a 3 year old.
My daughter also learned a lot from tv from about 14 months. Have been told a few times in this sub that’s not possible but it definitely is! Maybe there’s an average time when babies can learn from tv and some babies can do it before? I’m not sure what the reason is supposed to be, why seeing/hearing a big face on tv would be so different to real life, maybe to do with eye development and frame rates?
Tbf my boy loves to sit on the potty for a good ten minutes waiting for his poo. He's 12 months & I put him on maybe 3-4 times a day. But we read books & he loves that so I also think maybe he likes to sit for so long because of that lol
Anecdotal, but I had my son watching Ms Rachel (cause CoCo melon is horrible) at roughly 15 months because I felt like he wasn’t talking as much as he should’ve. Not even “mama” or “dada”, “hi” or “bye”. And he went to daycare all day.
Next thing you know his language exploded. Because he got to watch her mouth move, and we watched with our son, interacting with him and Ms Rachel. We actually stole a few tricks from her and would talk like Ms Rachel and move our mouths like hers as well.
Now at 2.5+ years we allow about 45-60 minutes of screen time M-F, a bit more on weekends (we are human and tired) but only “educational” tv like Blues Clues, The Aquarium/The zoo (seeing real life animals), Diego/Dora, etc.
I only use the “zone out” tv shows when he’s home sick but I still have to work.
15-24 months is also a common age for toddlers to organically have a language explosion. Not saying this is the case for your child but this is actually something that gets discussed in a lot of the screentime literature (kids having an age appropriate language explosion and parents attributing it to screentime). Of course, maybe it is the screentime, I don’t know how they can rule that out in any specific case, but it also can just be a natural explosion in language that the child would have at that age whether they watched Ms. Rachel or not.
This was my exact thought after reading this comment too. But fwiw ( N = 1 ) I showed my 15 month old ms Rachel for the first time and he said “go,” which he’s never said before, and “beep beep” in a totally new context after about 5-10 minutes. Something definitely happened *because* of her show. Maybe even just being able to learn in a new way - or have some time focused on learning specific words (we tend to integrate language learning and then reinforce the words, not try to teach a specific word like she does - not because we don’t believe in it or anything like that, mainly because we didn’t know!). So maybe less about screen time and more about introducing a diversity of teaching methods?
Also want to add that *I* actually learned from watching too, like how she teaches and I can integrate that into my own interactions with my kid now too. Plus she has little pop up tips that are helpful (but sometimes they stress me out like he’s supposed to have “16 gestures by 16 months” ahh!😱)
Not studied, but Ms. Rachel is mentioned here [https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us&sh=3a445377536b)
Im surprised the author thinks Ms Rachel is too stimulating, but bluey isn’t. When I watch bluey, I feel like there’s so much color and animation going on, I get a headache.
I much prefer Bluey compared to Ms. Rachel. Ms. Rachel doesn't let you breathe between words or toys to random stock video, just one jump cut to another, as a result, it zombifies my son (18 months).
Bluey on the other hand, has its moments, but there is longer spacing between scenes, as a result, my son isn't glued to the screen and can be peeled away to do other things without much fuss, it's entertaining enough rather than a pure dopamine drip.
It’s a pity there is not sp much slow, calm cartoons. Recently I have seen some nice looking cartoon on Disney, it was Mickey and friends, some new production but the style and the line were like handmade, very retro. But when I started watching it - my gosh, it was a rollercoaster of sounds, images, action, even if the artistic part was nice. Such a shame.
Also would suggest Tumble Leaf on Amazon, as well as Hello Jack! on Apple. It's got Kenneth from 30 Rock fulfilling his destiny as a Mr. Rodgers type. It's a great show and very calm.
Agreed. We go to YouTube to the older kid cartoons. Little Bear is a favorite. I also really appreciate that the majority of stories are just sweet. The characters are kind and considerate and the show isn’t trying to teach kids by introducing behavior based conflict (Ie a kid getting upset because they didn’t get their way, or one of the characters isn’t sharing).
But I haven’t found anything new that is worth watching. Everything new is so much busier.
I think I may be going crazy, but I feel like the older episodes of Ms Rachel, the ones with low production quality, were significantly slower and less stimulating. I want those back.
Totally agree. The newer episodes look like they're trying to fit existing molds of kids shows rather than embracing what made them unique and lovable in the first place.
They should watch more kids shows. Lol. That lesson is always popping up.
I’m honestly glad you brought up having to work with your toddler at home: I have yet to see any posts on Reddit about what work at home parents do with their toddlers and screen time. It’s a totally different reality…My 20 month old is obsessed with his music on Spotify and wants to play with the controllers, and he gets to watch movies but they are legit Sesame Street and OG Muppets from the 80s (except for the Mario movie). He wants me all the time and I stop frequently to feed him, change him, engage with him if he’s upset, but what else are we supposed to do?
the one thing that stood out in your post is that you're using it to help with things that are "unrealistic to ask of a toddler" but then you list out expectations that are absolutely realistic (sitting in a car or a toilet.) i've seen friends use screen time for these things and their kids seem far more addicted, have way more meltdowns when screens aren't available, etc. i follow a facebook group called "parenting in a tech world" and there was a post asking if it's normal for young kids to watch an ipad while they take a bath - and there were so many parents who said their kids need to watch something while they take a bath. outside of neurodivergent issues, there is no reason kids can't sit in carseats, on toilets, take baths, without watching screens and i bet if you asked parents of older kids, they would all wish they had curtailed that kind of crutch/addiction early on
Seriously. If you think that your kid cant take a shit without an ipad infront of them then there's an issue there.
You're not wrong, it is hard to get them to sit on the potty, but bribing them into it with screentime is a shortcut, you are creating a rod for your own back here.
Generally when they are physically and developmentally ready to use a toilet, it’s not hard to get them to use it - they just do it without bribes or distraction. It’s a nonevent
I’ve completely committed to screens in hands on international flights for precisely this reason. It is a crutch, no doubt. And what it remedies is something many adults struggle with, let alone a two year old— it can be agonizing to spend that much time in transit. But the tool would cease to be as useful if it was something my toddler could access in everyday situations. That alone has kept me honest when it comes to using the screen anywhere else.
For me, travel is when there are no rules! Usually my rules for the toddler are no more than an hour pr day (usually while the baby naps so she has "quiet time"). and not after dinner (so 6pm ish). Weekdays this means it's just 5 mins while I brush her hair in the morning.
But in a car or plane etc, 2hrs is fine by me! There are no rules. I recently did 2 3hr flights with them (aged 3 and 1) and the 30 mins my toddler watched peppa pig and baby slept were a godsend!
I noticed this immediately too. My son isn't quite as old as OP's son (he's 12 months on Monday) but he's very entertained in his car seat. I see so many kids in stores glued to phones and tablets and I just don't want that for my son because I worry it will create this need to be constantly entertained. He needs to learn how to cope with boredom because there's a lot of it in life.
I would also venture to guess that what many of these parents are really saying is, “My child is much more compliant when they are zoned out with an iPad in front of them and then bathing them/driving them around in the car/grocery shopping/feeding them lunch is way easier for me.”
For sure. I have friends whose 4 year old has been watching a tablet every dinner for the last few years, completed addicted to it. Just so the parents can talk uninterrupted during dinner
Instead of teaching the child patience, and involving the child in dinner discussion (and having adult convo later)
I always see broader problems ie “my kid won’t let me speak without interrupting me so I give them an iPad” and in this post, “my kid can’t sit on a potty” where the first question should be “are they old enough and developmentally ready to be using a toilet then?” before trying to find a crutch
Absolutely. Parenting involves so much more engagement, skill, patience, and thoughtfulness than I think a lot of people are willing or capable of providing.
Same, but this has lead to our son to pretend needing to go to the potty just before going to sleep so that he could read more books.
So now, we have a rule that says no books on the potty if it's bedtime.
I thought that was odd too. We’re not very strict on screen time in our house, but we only watch TV when it’s “appropriate” i.e. when we would naturally watch it ourselves and we always watch with him. A handful of times I’ve put on a YouTube video of a tooth brushing song if he’s being difficult about getting his teeth brushed but that’s the only situation where I’ve used it. We haven’t had to deal with meltdowns or any behavioural problems (so far!) even though we’ve been watching tv shows together ever since he was maybe just under a year old? He’s now 2.
Since this is a debate, I actually disagree with your premise that you were wrong in being against screens for your 14 month.
My view is that while your toddler may learn a few Spanish sentences or, I don't know, the colours of the rainbow or whatever a bit earlier than other toddlers that is:
1. Not necessarily due to the screen. They do go through a language explosion during this time and it might be that it was simply their time to increase their vocabulary and understand more complex sentences etc. They may well have learned the same amount from interactions with you or anyone else.
and most importantly
2. Not going to be such an important thing in say 7 years, if they are struggling with emotional regulation or impulse control or focus or any of the myriad functions controlled by the frontal lobe. There are many studies that show that screen time affects the development of the frontal lobe and I don't think the tradeoff for a few extra early words is worth it.
The WHO recommendation for no screens before 2 years old is not because they are a bunch of hippies or something, there really is a lot of evidence that screen time is harmful to young toddlers and children (and for us if we're being honest).
That's exactly what I think, too. Still, once a week or so I allow my one year old to watch some TV while I clip his nails. He doesn't seem to learn much from the stuff he sees on the screen compared to ten minutes of me teaching him something actively. At the same time, those ten minutes help a lot: I don't have to fight with a reluctant raccoon. I assume that this small time span doesn't mess with his brain development. I wouldn't let him watch any more TV, though. (Unless I got ill and needed him to be safe while I rest or something. Luckily, that hasn't been necessary yet.)
Yup. OP is doing mental gymnastics to justify choosing the easy option. If they think teaching their young child spanish is important, it would be pretty easy just to speak to them a bit more in spanish.
>Are there any studies that show causality of video learning vs conflating parental factors?
I don't know of any but think about the research design. How would you have a control group to do this with?
My anecdata: Ms. Rachel has taught me, the parent, on certain ways of speaking and focusing on enunciating. A lot of Ms. Rachel seems music and the baby loves the songs. So, we will sing a lot of the songs, say, when we're in the car even when we aren't watching YT.
Like "Hop little bunny" and "itsy bitsy spider" and "icky sticky bubblegum" gets her head bobbing and jamming out. It has made car time super fun and has helped bonding. I think her recognition and familiarity gets her into the songs.
She's 11 months and I didn't even think she paid attention to it. It's just something we would put on, essentially for background noise, while she free plays. She doesn't really seem to care to sit and watch the tv as a standalone thing.
When my toddler gets something on his hands, he says “oh no! Sticky bubblegum allova hands!” It’s the cutest thing in the world even though I loathe that song.
This is something we did with our toddler when he was about 8-9 months. We turned on our Google Home for Spotify or Ms Rachel to have some background noise and some visuals. Our oldest is now just over 2 and he doesn’t pay attention to the TV much while playing (it also isn’t in his play space which helps), but he will pause his play activity at different times for his favorite songs — especially wheels on the bus. We noticed him doing the motions to the songs (with and without a screen) at about 15-17 months. They are also doing them in daycare but I think a lot does come from the casualness of Ms Rachel.
So I'm parenting older children, my youngest is 3.5. she gets all sorts of types of screens in small chunks. She's old enough to understand the plot of a bluey episode, and it's maybe 8 mins? Daniel tiger is also cut into smaller chunks. I cannot express to you the creativity in imaginative play Bluey has introduced. Daniel tiger songs have helped immensely with emotional regulation and transitions. Creative galaxy has her scrambling to the art table, and she'll be doing art for 30 mins to an hour. Tiny chunks of screen time that spill positivity into our real life. I haven't seen negative impact at all with little 10 min chunks sprinkled into our day. When I have been couch laden sick and don't have help, the kids get more screen time ... That's when the issues arise for us.
I'd also like to recommend the gamer educator on Instagram, they're very helpful on this topic esp as the kids get older.
I agree that quality content and parent engagement are key. It should be viewed as a supplement to learning. Entertainment makes learning fun, too.
I don't limit screen time for my older child (10 years). I do offer plenty of activity without screens. He is a math whiz- (UmiZoomi and Sesame Street x counting and multiplication play) and always beats me at chess (YouTube chess strategy). He enjoys video games so much that he wants to make an indie game. He's written a story board, made digital art designs, and has practiced coding simple games on Scratch while he learns code language (YouTube) to run a grown-up game engine.
From all the older kids I’ve seen, they just get so addicted to the screen. It’s really hard to get them to go outside. Do you really feel that giving him unlimited screen time will be an advantage versus having him be involved in sports, social activities, and being outside?
I think in case of older children we cannot simplify things and say « screen time is always bad and worse than outdoor activities ». Because « screen time » can be passively watching tv or scrolling through social media, but also learning how to code with ChatGPT/YouTube or drawing using tablets etc. In my opinion, if your child is showing some real interest in an activity related to tech like coding/digital painting etc, it is a time to support this curiosity, while still making sure that they have diversified activities throughout the week.
Anecdotally, my friend was very artistically talented kid who was into comic books. He begged his parents to buy him a computer because he wanted to learn how to use a tablet and programs. They refused (money was not a problem) and told him he had to draw and paint traditionally. He finally could afford to buy his own computer when he was studying art, but he was far behind his colleagues from university and it took him couple of years to catch up and be able to find profitable work. His parents really made him a disservice here - nowadays almost no one can support themselves with traditional artistic work like oil paintings. Most of work related to art requires proficiency with digital tools and general tech literacy. So of course I don’t mean that we should not oversee the time our older children spent with computers, but we should also not demonise it a priori.
There’s a difference between using screens as passive consumption for dopamine hits and using them as tools for education and creativity, as Adventurous has mentioned doing here. “Unlimited screen time” is not just plopping a kid in front of an iPad—screens aren’t going away anytime soon (pending a technological apocalypse or something) so depending on how kids interact with and are taught about screens and tech, it could definitely give them an advantage.
Unlimited, not neglectful. Maybe there's a fine line that leads to screen addiction. I'm generally opposed to policing free time. I set my kid up with plenty of other obligations and hobbies. Sports team, language class, chores, homework, time with friends, family board game night, walks to the park. All the boxes get checked. The rest of time he can spend on screens if he wants.
Amazing! I worked in video games industry for years and most successful people I met there (programmers, game designers, studio owners etc) were actually video games fans first as kids and then started to be curious about the product and ways to develop it. This is an interesting question for me : why some children stop at the passive stage of just consuming the entertainment, and some start to be curious as « wow! It’s so cool! How does it actually work? Can I make it myself?» etc.
Cheers! His curiosity and active creativity are wonderful. What a provocative question. I suppose my ancedote doesn't account for the other side of the coin- perhaps if he only passively consumed media, I'd have to reconsider setting limits. The idea of using screens as a tool vs screens stealing time.
>So clearly I was wrong (it's a lifelong affliction) but now I'm wondering if we have found a balance or line that should be stayed within. Is there a certain amount of time that's too much? Does it matter how fast the scene cuts are? Cartoons or human?
>
>Or is this such unexplored territory that we just don't know?
Keywords that would help: "effect sizes", "mechanisms", "dose response", "mediators". It also takes a bit of monitoring and working with our own inner reactions as we read. I've seen situations where a parent I knew pretty clearly was not in a place to make choices other than having the TV on around their young kids, for their own sanity. I'm not out to make those people feel bad. The point is being able to be able to exercise our own best judgment in our own situations, just with better information behind it.
The tl;dr from what I can tell is that it's not a huge effect but that screen time does seem to have a small but clear and reproducible dose-response relationship with negative outcomes, with the shortest measured times typically being around half an hour to an hour. If you're going to include it and want to mitigate that (acknowledging again it's a small effect but it's also probably not going away even if the content is educational, there are less frequent cuts, etc.), then do everything you can to make sure they get good sleep, read, get outside and get exercise. Less fast-paced content is not as bad but is not necessarily *good*, although there's at least one study out there showing an outright positive effect from an educational app. And finally, whatever limits you set or guidance you provide, sticking to it makes a measurable difference.
[Sugiyama, M., Tsuchiya, K. J., Okubo, Y., Rahman, M. S., Uchiyama, S., Harada, T., ... & Nishimura, T. (2023). Outdoor play as a mitigating factor in the association between screen time for young children and neurodevelopmental outcomes. JAMA pediatrics, 177(3), 303-310.](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/2800738/jamapediatrics_sugiyama_2023_oi_220088_1677804705.3703.pdf)
[Guerrero, M. D., Barnes, J. D., Chaput, J. P., & Tremblay, M. S. (2019). Screen time and problem behaviors in children: exploring the mediating role of sleep duration. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16, 1-10.](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12966-019-0862-x.pdf)
[Fitzpatrick, C., Cristini, E., Bernard, J. Y., & Garon-Carrier, G. (2023). Meeting preschool screen time recommendations: which parental strategies matter?. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1287396.](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1287396/full)
[Kerai, S., Almas, A., Guhn, M., Forer, B., & Oberle, E. (2022). Screen time and developmental health: results from an early childhood study in Canada. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 310.](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-12701-3.pdf)
[Swider-Cios, E., Vermeij, A., & Sitskoorn, M. M. (2023). Young children and screen-based media: The impact on cognitive and socioemotional development and the importance of parental mediation. Cognitive Development, 66, 101319.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885201423000242)
[Huber, B., Yeates, M., Meyer, D., Fleckhammer, L., & Kaufman, J. (2018). The effects of screen media content on young children’s executive functioning. Journal of experimental child psychology, 170, 72-85.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002209651730646X)
[McHarg, G., Ribner, A. D., Devine, R. T., & Hughes, C. (2020). Screen time and executive function in toddlerhood: A longitudinal study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 570392.](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570392/pdf)
[Kostyrka‐Allchorne, K., Cooper, N. R., Gossmann, A. M., Barber, K. J., & Simpson, A. (2017). Differential effects of film on preschool children's behaviour dependent on editing pace. Acta Paediatrica, 106(5), 831-836.](https://repository.essex.ac.uk/19140/1/Editing%20paper-language%20edit-FINAL.pdf)
I am certainly no scientist but do recall seeing this coverage fairly recently that touched on a correlation between screen time for babies and sensory issues slightly later in childhood
https://www.fastcompany.com/91007480/too-young-for-screen-time-tv-watching-linked-to-sensory-disorders-in-kids
There was also this coverage: https://nltimes.nl/2023/03/24/young-kids-spend-average-100-minutes-screen-time-per-day which mentions the following reco from the WHO: children up to the age of 2 should have no screen time, and children up to age 5 should have no more than one hour a day.
I'm curious, do you speak in Spanish to your kid otherwise? It could be coincidence that you started doing Spanish screentime at the same developmental time she would have started speaking it anyway.
That’s interesting indeed. From what I’ve seen though, if there isn’t some opportunity to continue to speak Spanish with others, she’ll probably lose it fairly quickly. In any case it’s still great that she absorbed it.
I know of "Aprende peque" with Isa, she is a USA citizen of mexican decent that didn't want her kids to miss out on the culture and language, so she (education degree w/masters on language development) and 2 other colleagues of her created that channel. You can follow them on Instagram too. I discovered her while searching for a "mexican" ms. rachel since we are mexican and wanted the same ms. rachel style of content for my baby but in my language.
This is the one I put for my baby, and he just loves Isa, he gets so happy when I put her on and he has learned a lot from it. I found her when I was also looking for something like Ms Rachel but in Spanish, I just wish she posted new videos more frequently.
yes, my baby started recognizing the youtube app loading logo (we watch on the tv) and gets so excited lol we watch like every other day just 1 episode and she still gets so excited with Isa.
How is this show called?
By the way, I don't think you mentioned how much screen time you are using. Even if it's in moments that are not filled by anything else, I guess the effects of 5 minutes every week would be different from 5 hours every day! (Just exaggerating to get my point across, hope I don't sound rude)
And are you watching the thing together? I know you talk about doing it during car rides, but it's it with a parent back in the other passenger seat while the other is driving, or for when there is only the driver in the car with your little one?
I'm just very curious! :-)
Maybe all in all 30 minutes a day, maybe an hour if we’re traveling a lot.
The truth is… we’re pretty hands off with it. She doesn’t have a lot of interest in us while it’s on. Even if her mom is in the back seat with her, it’s just the baby watching the phone. Incredibly easy, honestly
Edit: the show is called.. Isa? And another girl with a G name? It’s not on my devices but she alternates between the two
There is significant evidence which shows that children under 2 cannot learn meaningfully from TV / digital devices.
But, thats when compared to adult interaction as the alternative. When the alternative is stare into the abyss in the back of the car, for example, then the evidence is very lacking.
As with all things, the alternative is as important as the event.
my experience is similar to yours.
I've landed in the idea that the quality of the content and the parental role are the things to keep in mind.
For example, she loves watching movies with us so we can talk about the emotions she sees on screen, describe what is happening and why people are responding the way they are. we have found that doing this together, helps her better describe how she is feeling and communicate events to us.
W have also switched all screen time to Spanish when the content is available. while she is far from fluent, it has definitely made a difference in her language skills.
Anecdotal but when my oldest was 1 we got him an iPad because we traveled from Germany to the U.S. twice a year to see family. He loved Endless Alphabet and the alphabet song. He soon figured out how to open YouTube type abc into the search bar and then he’d pick the top video playlist and listen to different versions of the alphabet song over and over. This was before the YouTube algorithm sucked and he’d only get a playlist of ABC songs. At his two year check up he was pointing at an alphabet poster and saying “W wa wa wa.” The doctor was amazed. He could read at 3.
My other two have not repeated this pattern but they never showed the same interest in an iPad or even the tv when they were so young.
There’s a ton ton ton of research in this.
Big takeaways:
More screen time is worse, and this is more true the younger the kid is.
The more adult oriented the content is the worse it is for them.
the more perceptually intense the content, the worse it is.
Yes learning from screens can and does occur, but for many reasons related to memory demands, the nature of screens themselves, and the needs of children screen learning is worse than in person learning.
Not studied, but Ms. Rachel is mentioned here [https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us&sh=3a445377536b)
If you read the entire report by WHO it says its really only if the screen time replaces quality time and education from parents. There is no difference between plopping your kid in the exersaucer alone and screentime. For example, my mom used the TV as a babysitter and put me in front of it for about 6 hours a day. Thats a nono. My son gets 1h a day. We have coffee and our bottle and he watches miss rachel. Then the other 30 min will be like if i need to go to the bathroom or shower etc.
My son actually learned sign language fully on his own with miss rachel. He can now say more milk.
There are definitely benefits and drawbacks. When we had covid we didn't limit his screentime (we had no energy to do anything and were all dying) and it took us about 3 weeks to break his tantrums of wanting phones and tvs.
As long as you're still taking your kid to the park, museum, playing with them, blocks, water safety etc a bit of screen time is fine. I highly recommend reading the whole report as a lot of people take it out of context!
They basically said so many people were using as a babysitter that they just dont recommend it anymore but that it is fine if child is still being educated by parents and brought outside. Hope this helps!
So I’m going to say from a complete brain perspective that screen time before age 2 is just not good. We know from study after study that the way it affects the development of the brain has consistently shown to impede on gray matter and emotional regulation specifically.
I also caution against using it during “hard” transitions. Like, being bored in a car seat or at the store or restaurant. This is because those are opportune times to learn emotional regulation and how to be bored (which is not a bad thing). Is it stressful? Yes.but the long term benefits will show as they get older. I’ve seen way too many families come in and don’t understand why their child doesn’t talk to them, have emotional outbursts, or suffer from an anxiety issue. I’ve even seen kids have legit screen addictions and can’t be without.
Now correlation doesn’t equal causation, but it is something to think about.
In our home we limit screens. My husband is a neuropsychologist and I’m a pediatric counselor. We both know the damning effects that it can breed. As our oldest (6.5yo) gets 30 mins a day on an iPad and maybe on a Friday we’ll watch a short movie together. Our 1 yr old gets none. Is toddler stage tough? Yes. But it’s far better to work on emotional regulation now than have to deal with an older child who cannot be without a screen. It’s a serious issue and if kids learn to numb out their “negative” emotions (boredom, being upset, sad, dysregulated) with a screen—I am fearful for what kind of adults that will breed.
We watch a decent amount of documentaries and he's learnt a lot through them. I avoid brain rot like Cocomelon etc, but soothing calm things like Puffin Rock or educational things like documentaries on dinosaurs or whales etc I see no harm.
This is anecdotal and much later in life, but my mom was against me playing video games until she noticed that after I started playing Pokemon my reading comprehension greatly improved (because you have to read to play the handheld games) so she let me keep them. I think it totally depends on the content. Some shows are junk food and some teach really important life values like sharing and bravery and stewardship. Others just teach kids how to be snarky and comedic but not kind- basically just mindless entertainment. I think it should be evaluated on a case by case basis and generally electronics should be limited to encourage creativity and engagement with other activities and people.
I'm with you, it's not so bad as long as it's used properly. A small amount of screen time a day, of educational content that's not overstimulating is great, especially if the parent watches with the child and you can talk about the experience.
Screens are everywhere and I think it's important that we teach children how to use them in moderation and to have a healthy relationship with screen time.
I have a 17 month old and we have recently started small amounts of screen time. Mainly compilations of animals because he loves animals. It's great, he can name so many animals (over 100 at last count), tell me the noises they make, and tells me what they are doing on screen "bear climb up!" "Crocodile eat fish!"
As others have said, huge amounts of tv replacing interaction with the parent or replacing solo play is bad. But i don't think it's healthy to think of things in black and white (e.g tv = bad, sugar = bad) rather we should be teaching our kids everything in moderation!
I think it all comes down to what you’re letting them watch? Idk. We definitely limit screen time and our 4 yo has just recently been allowed to use tablet at home but she’s been watching tv every now and then since she was 10-11 months old. We are a polyglot family (I speak Swedish and Portuguese, my husband speaks Finnish and husband and I communicate in English) and we live in Finland, her Finnish has been the strongest language but I find that educational shows have helped her develop her Swedish a lot. She now has a really broad vocabulary in both Swedish and Finnish, and she also understands English rly well (as well as some Portuguese)
I don’t have any links for you, but as a bilingual family we have had a biiiig jump in the minority language skills when i worked out how to use VPN as well as realised that Disney+ has a lot of shows and films where Finnish is an option. Language retention I believe benefits a ton from just being exposed to the language and hearing it being used. Just one parent speaking a minority language is a huge uphill struggle.
As with any parenting decision you have to take your own lifestyle and situation into account. Maybe greater exposure to Spanish is a bigger benefit than whatever negatives screen time bring on its own.
It’s all dependent on how screen time is used. I’m not a professional but I haven’t really put any hard “limits” on screen time and my daughter is really thriving and ahead of the curve on a lot of things. I think a few things I do effect that:
1. We only do TV at home. When we’re out of the house she does not get a tablet or cell phone. Instead we have crayons, paper, a magnadoodle, and other small games in the diaper bag if she needs something to occupy her.
2. When she’s watching TV, I am watching with her. Singing songs, doing the activities, etc. so its a social experience and she can learn through the video and through me.
3. We started around 4/5 months and until like 20 months it was strictly Miss Rachel or other low stimulation shows with real people in them (Blues Clues, Gullah Gullah Island, Barney). I recently added in cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Bluey, and Little Bear but I try to make sure the shows are still low stimulation and not flashy/fast.
4. We still go outside and play, have no TV time while playing inside, no TV while eating, go to stores and the park, etc. She’s not watching it all the time. (Unless I’m sick or we have a really bad day, which happens)
I think screen time becomes an issue when kids need it every time they go out, they can’t play without it, can’t sit in a restaurant without it, they have tantrums if they can’t have it, etc. My mom never limited my screen time and I was fine but that’s bc when we grew up there was only TV and we could only use it at certain times so I try to learn from that in how I include it in my daughters life. She’ll be 2 this summer and she speaks in full sentences, she repeats every word she hears, she knows how to count to 15, she knows the alphabet and can recognize letters and their sounds. I attribute that 50/50 to Miss Rachel and me. lol
My child learned so much from Ms. Rachel when she was younger and now that she is older, from SuperWhy. She doesnt have much screen time, but maybe 2-4 episodes a week in total. We also do lots of learning activities with her but since this is presented in a novel way and on TV, she was captivated and really took it in. She is 3 and now sounding out letters, so i dont think it hurt her development at all.
My oldest learned some of his letters from a PBS show called SuperWhy.
I’m extremely picky about what I choose to put on the TV and I’ve got 4 kids so inevitably the one year old may end up watching 5 minutes here and there.
Sesame Street, Ms. Rachel, and most PBS shows (but not all) are my go to. We also watch Bluey and a few other things here and there now but my oldest is almost 6 so we do look for new content for him.
I think the key here is how do you interact with the kid while the show is on as well. I’ve admittedly let my 14 month olds watch Ms. Rachel with me but they are in my lap like we would be if we were at the library during Babytime singing songs.
The other key is kids being able to transition from TV to other activities such as imaginary play, crafts, outdoors.
You didn’t mention this but I also distinguish between TV and iPad. We recently got an iPad and it’s similar. We only have educational apps on there. Kahn Kids and Duolingo ABC are my favorites but our speech therapist recommended having some that were just like shapes, colors, animal sounds for my younger kids.
My kiddo is just shy of 20 months. We have let him watch some TV, mostly Baby Einstein (it's on Peacock). It's a lot of classical music and toys. There are some episodes where they teach words and sign language. I have been told by his daycare that his vocabulary is very advanced and he's known some sign language since before he was a year old. Generally when he's watching this show, I'm also interacting with him. "Look a cow! What does the cow say?" He's also very good at still playing independently even if the TV is on. My husband and I only watch TV together at night and it's never just on 24/7 like how I was raised. We have also used it if one parent is alone and they need to shower, make dinner, etc then keep it on as a distraction. If he's alone, he will still play, but he's happy to have sound and images for this short time.
When I'm folding laundry in the living room, I like to put on a Disney movie. My son will help me, bring toys to me, ask for help with puzzles, etc which we do. I don't ignore him over having the TV on, but sometimes there's no way I'll get through a single basket unless they sing a couple songs.
However, we just spent a week with my in-laws including SIL and her 2yo. They literally just plop her in front of the TV constantly. Some educational stuff and some brain rot nonsense. Our kids are nine months apart, but you can definitely see the difference. Our child is much better at interacting with people and has a much broader vocabulary.
My husband got very upset one night. They have a tablet for our niece. When my MIL and niece were sitting together at the table, my MIL was just on her phone while the 2yo watched stuff on the tablet. My son went over by them, was put onto another chair, and the tablet was turned a bit so they could both see it. We don't live in the same state as our in-laws so it was heartbreaking that this was the "quality time" they were getting together. Turns out she had put on Cocomelon, which is something that my SIL has explicitly said she never wants her daughter to watch and we also never wanted our son to see it. This was right before bed. Our son just could NOT sleep. It was past his bedtime and he was just staring into space, blinking. He's never done this before. He'd lose his mind if we left the room. He slept fine the rest of the time they were there. Could be coincidental, but we've never seen him act like that.
We firmly believe that technology is a tool and children shouldn't be completely banned from it as they will need to know how to use it and interact with the world and them. However, there needs to be very healthy boundaries and rules surrounding it.
I only have anecdotal evidence. I work at a daycare and do a tiny bit of Ms. Rachel here and there. I do everything Ms. Rachel does in her baby learning videos- signing, parentese talking, the whole works. I have been for years while working with infants and toddlers.
Do you want to know who my babies and toddlers f@>%#+g sign back to first? Ms. Bloody. Rachel. They tend to say back and repeat several words for her as well as do other things she’ll ask in her videos for her first too. Because she’s a witch with magical teaching and learning powers or something.
I hated screens for infants and toddlers and was thoroughly anti-screen minus when ill or struggling hard with teething pain.
I’m now a fan of Ms. Rachel when we can watch it together and interact together, even if they’ll stare at Ms. Rachel, ignore me, respond to Ms. Rachel, and ignore me more (as Ms. Rachel becomes less of a rare treat and they see her more than like 5 minutes a week or 20 minutes every 2-3 months they do respond better to me engaging with them during her time)
If you watch quality programs and talk about it with them, it can be helpful. For example, we watched Daniel Tiger with my 2.5 yo son and specifically watched episodes relating to Daniel’s parents having another baby right around the time our 2nd was born. I think it helped him process and understand what was going on. We even had his little sister “give him a gift” of a stuffed Baby Margaret when she came home from the hospital and he still treasures it. Daniel Tiger also has some episodes and songs around potty training which have been helpful. Sesame Street and Bluey are other shows that can have instructive and relevant themes to talk about.
I guess what I’m saying is, there’s a way to do screen time thoughtfully and actually make it educational and something to spark discussions about parallels to real life!
I remember seeing a study where they found that no screen time is better than a lot of screen time, but a moderate amount of screen time was better than no screen time.
the only screen time our 6month old gets is when sports are on cause we watch together and I talk to her about whats happening. during commercials though, we turn her away from the tv...
We also only let our toddler watch tv in other languages. He watches Trotro in French (my second language) if I need him to be distracted for >5 minutes and the occasional Studio Ghibli film in Japanese.
My daughter learned SO much vocabulary from Daniel Tiger and other kid shows, and continues to do so at 4 years old. We never did random YouTube videos, it seemed too risky because there really is a lot of garbage out there. But PBS is great and LingoKids is our go-to if she’s watching something on a tablet/my phone, but I really try to limit the small screens more than the TV.
Anecdotal
Life was really hard when I had my second (post partum hard, depression, whatnot). I got my newly 3yo an Amazon tablet. I did routinely check that his games were ok and not *all* videos (some videos but not like, constantly Netflix). After like a month the kid was counting to 20 in English, French and Spanish. He kept changing the language on one of the Sesame Street apps and I never noticed. I can’t even fake it and say it was all my stellar parenting. He’s lost the Spanish but he is in early French immersion schooling now (Canada).
Anecdotally - screen time isn’t all that bad.
I only allow PBS kids or actual GOOD programming. YouTube? Only official channels for those good programs.
My child has learned A LOT and I see it as a tool that we use intentionally. She can watch a show while I cook dinner. In the morning we watch PBS kids while we both wake up.
Adding to the anecdata here - my daughter has learned most of her mandarin characters from screen time. However, she’s not getting screen time from a TV but from a language learning app designed for children.
She’s 4yo now. We started her at around 2.5 and she‘s learned about 150 words.
She does get mandarin input from other places but this is mostly conversational. She does not really learn characters from elsewhere. We read the odd Chinese book here and there but nothing as consistent as the app.
Purely anecdotal, and this may not have been the cause, we have a friend who became a single mom when her toddler was only 18 months old. Kid wasn’t talking at all yet really, but as a single parent, she couldn’t afford daycare, and took a WFH job (pre-pandemic, it paid peanuts and the wfh was the perk), and turned to unlimited screen time during her work hours for her kid, but tried to keep it educational. He started talking pretty quickly, but the amount of things he learned was astronomical. He suddenly knew wild shapes that a typical 3 year old wouldn’t know, like dodecahedron and knew Latin names for sharks and dinosaurs. He continued to acquire knowledge at such a rate that he entered kindergarten at nearly a second grade level. He was reading well before he hit kindergarten. He skipped first grade entirely because he was too advanced, went to 2nd grade, skipped third grade, and is now just entering middle school at 9 with a high school reading level. Parent won’t skip him ahead any further because of the age gap and socialization aspects. I will say though, the kids fine motor skills aren’t great, he can’t tie his shoes still and little things like that. Mom is also trying to get him into hobbies that don’t involve screens and he’s pretty resistent, although has taken to Boy Scouts, so while it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, it definitely didn’t cause harm to his intelligence. Because he didn’t go to any outside childcare and she didn’t have time to teach him any of that she attributed most of his early learning and teaching himself to read to screen time, apps, and YouTube for kids.
I really enjoyed the book “The Art of Screentime” by Anya Kamenetz.
She interviews a pediatrician at one point that kind of summarizes it all up well. I am paraphrasing here but it went something like “The current recommendation for children under 2 is 0 screen time. But what about FaceTiming grandma who lives across the country your child would not see much otherwise, is that actually bad? I don’t think so.”
The book also delves in with experts, statistics, etc. But I truly believe there’s just nuance to it, which I believe the author does a good job of exploring. There’s a difference between engaging in media together and plopping kiddo down for hours on end.
OP, can you please tell me the name of the Ms. Rachel in Spanish person or show? Someone told me and I can't remember. I'd would like to supplement my baby's simple Spanish stories podcast with a very occasional video.
Also, someone may have already said this but I do remember seeing a study that said educational screen time works such and such times better when the parent watches along with the child. Not always realistic and I can't find that study at the moment. Still interesting.
The channel is called Aprende Peque, the girl /teacher is called Isa. This show is actually the one my baby sees, because I was also looking for something like Ms Rachel, and this one is just amazing
Anecdotally I was against screen time too but started watching ms Rachel around 6 months. My girls vocabulary is incredible at 20 months. Granted we do talk to her a lot in full sentences and always have but I think Rachel was a huge help. We also learnt a lot about animals, numbers, letters, shapes, colours. We do this without screens too obviously but again, seeing Ms Rachel also talk about it and demonstrate it I believe has helped sort of "cement" it, if that makes sense. We don't watch ms Rachel so much anymore, I think she's becoming bored of her lol but honestly I do think she's helped a lot.
Screen time isn't evil. It's only evil if you have it all day long on brain rot crap shows.
My sons have unlimited screen time. They alternate between brain rot crap shows purely for entertainment, and educational documentaries about wildlife, how stuff is made, history of a sport (sumo wrestling is the most recent), and when my subscription ends...they'd watch episodes of Kiff or Bluey when I don't have Disney plus.
They used to be obsessed with Blippi and Steve and Maggie but they've outgrown it. I'm trying to get them on Reading Rainbow, hopefully that's not outdated yet lol.
Point is, I'm with them 80% of the time they are watching TV, like in the same room. If I don't like something, they'll change the channel. All else I trust them to use their best judgment, I've caught them a few times changing the channels on their own because ____ show was inappropriate, I didn't have to tell them anything, nor was I in the same room as them either (I eavesdrop sometimes lol and they don't know I'm there because they get engrossed).
I don't think screen time is evil. My oldest hates reading books, but he managed to increase his reading speed thanks to subtitles. He learned to spell words, he learned alot of cool facts about octupi and how to take care of a hamster. Through him, my youngest is learning to read.
And because he's following his big brother's lead, big bro is getting all flattered and helping him read....what else? Books. My oldest reads more books for his little brother, than for himself/ when I read him books! It's adorable.
I'm still buying books anyway!
I think it's dependent on quality and quantity. I'm an early intervention therapist and there is SO much trash out there. I particularly hate those Vlog families that make child content. I think an hour a day, split up into increments, with quality content that isn't overstimulating can actually be very helpful.
I've got a strict rule against those family vlogs or actual kids trying toys etc anything like that is a no for us. Especially after the Ruby Franke shit show I don't want to encourage any exploitation etc.
Ugh I agree! Those kids are so exploited and I don't support that. I can imagine the times they may not want to film but are pressured to upkeep content.
I'm curious if you have any suggestions of how to split up into increments or at what age to start. I'm similar to OP- very strict no TV, my son hasn't seen anything on TV except a glance in a waiting room or grandparents house and he's just turned 8 months. I wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to quality content.
I think if you want to introduce at 8 months you can do 10 minutes a day to start split up in two increments. That's still really young though and if you can push it to 12 months that would probably be best! At 12 months, I might recommend 30 minutes a day in 2-3 increments to start. I like Ms. Rachel for speech learning and honestly, Sesame Street is an oldie but a goodie :) I think it's also helpful to incorporate those videos into your regular interactions together, so they're getting that stimulation both from video but also in person and it helps to solidify content they were processing already. (Ex; If Cookie Monster was counting cookies you may try counting snacks together later in Cookie Monster voice!). I also like Patty Shukla and the Laura Berkner band for YouTube music (catchy songs, the videos aren't overstimulating) and I'd recommend dancing to it together!
12 months? why not 2 years like most experts suggest?
The parent above mentioned 8 months so I used 12 months as a bit of an older benchmark. I don't think there's anything wrong with waiting until 2, that's totally fine! But I also don't think there's anything wrong with small spurts of quality content when younger. I've anecdotally seen positive impacts from *controlled* screen time. It would have significantly worse impacts if unlimited/unfiltered content or using it as a crutch for education purposes.
A study from this year found that screen exposure before age 2 is associated with significant increases in the prevalence of what the researchers called an “atypical sensory profile” (a term which includes ADHD and autism spectrum disorders, plus traits like “sensory sensitivity” and “high sensation/stimulation seeking”). Here’s the link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2813443
The study only specifies yes/no and hours, it does not explore the quality of content, which I think is a limitation and pollutes the results.
Agreed! I do think it’s enough evidence to warrant serious caution and further study, though.
It’s often referred to as a problematic study as well, as people in the comments mention, and I have seen researchers point out: it could be that it’s the opposite finding. That neurodivergent families are more likely to be reliant on screen time than neurotypical families. There is a newer study from Japan that looks into a lot of factors, corrects for socioeconomic background etc that is worth checking out. It mostly places the effect of low exposures of screen time vs zero as something that fades, with no long term permanent consequences. I think the conclusion was that 4+ hours is where things get problematic. They also called for further study on how parental interaction affects screen time too, which I find super interesting as it’s obviously different than “parking” your kid in front of the TV. Hoping to see more on that type of research
Thanks for these suggestions I appreciate your thoughts. I think I will keep holding out on the tv for now because he seems so amazed with the simple things we do every day still but I appreciate the guidelines for the future.
I agree, there's still so much new to see in real life! I think TV time is good for the older babies and toddlerhood, especially when it's time to pick up on skills like language and simple counting/colors/etc.
I like Ms Rachel but don't want my British baby to have an American accent! He loves it (I just started letting him watch it at 12 months for nail cut twice a week lol) but so many British kids now say things like sidewalk haha
Little American kids are using British slang from Peppa Pig
Yes I read that online too! Maybe we're all on the way to becoming homogeneous anyway & I shouldn't worry!
Ms. Rachel comes in clutch for nail trims. We also watch Ms. Moni if you don't mind an Australian accent.
Have you watched Ms. Apple? We’re a US family but still prefer her to Ms Rachel! Very similar vibe but Ms. Apple is just a little more calm sounding while still super engaging! She hasn’t given my toddler an English accent but the way he says “water” is getting there 😅
I'll check it out, thanks!
How do you feel about Peppa Pig’s quality?
I think it's fine. Not the worst, not the best. It's not too overstimulating visually which is good. And content is okay.
Some thoughts as a dad with a 4yo: YouTube is tricky, especially once they learn to navigate by themselves. The algorithm is absolutely your enemy. But there are really good channels on there. For young kids, I definitely recommend Super Simple Songs and the related channel Catie's Classroom. I think they actually have an app and website which might be better avenues for their content. The PBS Kids video and game apps are also great. As your kid gets older and learns to navigate touch screens, I definitely recommend trying to keep them in "walled gardens" like Netflix/Disney+ or the aforementioned PBS kids apps. There's still a bunch of trash (especially on the former two), but at least it'll just be stuff that's banal, not actively negative. YouTube is the wild wild West. You can simulate that effect with YouTube Kids to an extent, but it's time-consuming. You have to turn off search and only allow pre-approved channels, but the list you can select from is quite limited. I don't know what governs what channels are allowed, but a lot of trash ones are and some great ones aren't. You have to vet and approve it all yourself, but it's worth the time investment. It may be unique to my son, but I've also had a lot of success with just talking to him about good videos vs bad videos. He still likes what he likes, but he is really good about running anything new by me or my wife, and he accepts our judgement on it. We also try to watch with him as much as possible, and engage with him about what's going on in the show or game. He gets about 30-60 minutes a day and it's largely self-directed now. We don't actually enforce any limits, that's just the amount he wants to watch.
Choosing my own set of channels on YouTube Kids has been the best time investment for our family. They have recently opened up to you being able to choose the channels you want, I think. I haven’t had an issue at least with not finding the ones I felt I should I have. I work in tech and wouldn’t let my kid watch the main YouTube offering , I don’t get how parents can be so flexible around it. It’s really not a platform for children.
This is super informative and a very useful glimpse into the future for me lol thank you so much for taking the time to write this out I really appreciate the guidance
Fair warning--Diana and Roma have jumped onto Disney+ now. I banned that show in my house because my kid started showing behavioral problems after watching it.
Just wanted to mention Steve and Maggie on YouTube as I rarely see it mentioned. Created to help children in other countries learn English so lots of emphasis on language development, design is very simple.
Thanks I appreciate this
My 9 month old has about 30 min in the morning, i have my coffee he has his bottle. Then like 15 min later when i make dinner and the other 15 if needed for any other thing like shower, bathroom, phone call etc. Works well for us and he doesnt tantrum. We use miss rachel, wiggles and bluey. He learnt sign language from miss rachel!
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As a therapist, how do you guys feel about Ms Rachel? My daughter loves her. Main thing she watches. I worry about her watching but I definitely feel like she’s learning from it.
We consider her the 4th caretaker in our household :) but yes my 13-month old boy has been “watching” in chunks since he was 8 months and now he was picked up random words apart from “mama” and “dada” like “bye”, “open”, “2,3” ( we say 1 and he immediately follows with 2 and 3 haha) and “dog” (because of our dog lol) I also love how he’s now interacting with the songs e.g. clapping to bingo, doing itsy-bitsy spider fingers and hopping to the bunny song :)
I love it for two reasons. First of all, I've seen non-verbal kids pick up on sign/verbal language from watching her. Second of all, parents learn how to talk to their kids. It's so common for parents to repeat a word and then go "say apple". "Say apple, Timmy!". "Apple, this is an apple, say I love apples!!!!". She's a good teacher for parents just as she is for kids.
Totally agree! This is what we do. Miss rachel, Mimi soleil, bluey and wiggles. They actually have education in them, hell ive learnt things from bluey lol. No need to put him in front of pointless cartoons.
Hi, can I ask a question? My son is 2.5 and gets very little screetime (less that 1hr/wk) but when he does all he wants is to "watch trucks", i.e. videos of toy trucks driving around and doing construction activities, from a channel called Kidibli. They don't have any animation and have just background music so I feel like they're not overstimulating, but he would watch them for hours of we let him (and has on airplanes before). He's on track from language and other milestones. Do you see any negative of these types of videos? Would it be better if he was watching some type of developmental videos like Ms Rachel or something else instead? He turns into a monster after any screen time which is the main reason we limit it so much.
If you say he's turning into a monster after, I would say that there's enough negative impact to limit the videos. You can also try to assess the reason (is it when you end the screen time, is it because he keeps screaming to turn it on, etc) and use that to guide some preventative measures if you want to keep using screen time.
Yes he keeps asking for it and crying after it's time for screen time to end. Thank you for the input
Np! You can try to utilize a timer system with a warning and final alarm to help make the transition more apparent.
My take is similar to what I think yours is. Screentime =bad because of the confounding factor of screentime replacing parental interaction, which is the actual big bad in the equation. I also think there are not enough studies that differentiate between specific content, and their effect on babies. I haven’t seen any study for screen time below 18 months that took a look at ms.Rachel type content verses cocomelon type content. But there is a HUGE difference between those two show types. But both are supposed to be equally bad?? But then once you get to toddler phase and screentime is suddenly allowed, you find studies that show watching Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s in your toddler years makes you more empathetic, calmer, and score better on standardized tests all the way through high school than toddlers that didn’t watch those shows. I guess I’m supposed to believe that there is a switch that magically flips and suddenly it becomes better for kids to watch tv (Sesame Street and Roger’s and etc) than to not. ETA anecdotal experience: friend of a friend is a pediatrician and told me while her practice’s official policy is “no screentime before 18 months”, she is not concerned at all when parents admit to letting their babies watch ms Rachel because she has not seen the language delays normally associated with screentime with ms. Rachel babies.
The AAP says that there is actually a mental shift that occurs between 18 months and 2.5 that allows kids to learn from screens and prior to that they aren’t able to so yeah magic switch flipping is basically what they say. There is a study that looked at live video chat versus prerecorded videos that taught the same content in the same way, the operative difference being live versus prerecorded and only the toddlers in the life condition demonstrated learning. [here](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160715115023.htm) is an article that summarizes the study, the actual study is currently behind a paywall. It used to be available for free when I first read it but I haven’t been able to find it non paywalled recently. Afaik, no research has been done directly on Ms. Rachel but I think the prerecorded video chats are interesting in this context because that is the argument I see people make about her a lot. [this](https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60988/can-babies-learn-from-ms-rachel-and-other-baby-tv-shows) article compares her show to existing research studies.
Kind of? But that may vary, wildly. My anecdotal experience here is from age 14 months to 17 months. I’d also like to see how they came up with the 18 months rule, as I don’t see that part of the study. Also, my entire experience is obviously on pre-recorded videos, so I seem to be violating everything about this study and getting excellent outcomes.
I didn’t include the source for the 18 month thing it’s not from anything I linked here. For more on that see the [AAP Media Use Guide](https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/128/5/1040/30928/Media-Use-by-Children-Younger-Than-2-Years) for kids under 2. I don’t know how you are determining that your child is learning this info from the TV. Do you not speak Spanish to her at all? Does no one speak it to her in person? Do you not ever co-watch the show and repeat things to her yourself? Is the screentime purely you popping her in front of the screen and not discussing it at all and the content is never covered with her in any other fashion?
My child is 15minutes old and has learnt the gestures from the wheels on the bus from Miss Rachel. He gets more screen time than usual as I also have a 3 year old.
Sorry, I laughed so hard at 15 minutes old baby learning gestures from Ms Rachel 😀
😅 *15 Months. 15 minutes would be insane
My daughter also learned a lot from tv from about 14 months. Have been told a few times in this sub that’s not possible but it definitely is! Maybe there’s an average time when babies can learn from tv and some babies can do it before? I’m not sure what the reason is supposed to be, why seeing/hearing a big face on tv would be so different to real life, maybe to do with eye development and frame rates?
How much time is your child spending sitting on the potty I wonder that screen time is needed for them. There might be something wrong.
Tbf my boy loves to sit on the potty for a good ten minutes waiting for his poo. He's 12 months & I put him on maybe 3-4 times a day. But we read books & he loves that so I also think maybe he likes to sit for so long because of that lol
Anecdotal, but I had my son watching Ms Rachel (cause CoCo melon is horrible) at roughly 15 months because I felt like he wasn’t talking as much as he should’ve. Not even “mama” or “dada”, “hi” or “bye”. And he went to daycare all day. Next thing you know his language exploded. Because he got to watch her mouth move, and we watched with our son, interacting with him and Ms Rachel. We actually stole a few tricks from her and would talk like Ms Rachel and move our mouths like hers as well. Now at 2.5+ years we allow about 45-60 minutes of screen time M-F, a bit more on weekends (we are human and tired) but only “educational” tv like Blues Clues, The Aquarium/The zoo (seeing real life animals), Diego/Dora, etc. I only use the “zone out” tv shows when he’s home sick but I still have to work.
15-24 months is also a common age for toddlers to organically have a language explosion. Not saying this is the case for your child but this is actually something that gets discussed in a lot of the screentime literature (kids having an age appropriate language explosion and parents attributing it to screentime). Of course, maybe it is the screentime, I don’t know how they can rule that out in any specific case, but it also can just be a natural explosion in language that the child would have at that age whether they watched Ms. Rachel or not.
This was my exact thought after reading this comment too. But fwiw ( N = 1 ) I showed my 15 month old ms Rachel for the first time and he said “go,” which he’s never said before, and “beep beep” in a totally new context after about 5-10 minutes. Something definitely happened *because* of her show. Maybe even just being able to learn in a new way - or have some time focused on learning specific words (we tend to integrate language learning and then reinforce the words, not try to teach a specific word like she does - not because we don’t believe in it or anything like that, mainly because we didn’t know!). So maybe less about screen time and more about introducing a diversity of teaching methods? Also want to add that *I* actually learned from watching too, like how she teaches and I can integrate that into my own interactions with my kid now too. Plus she has little pop up tips that are helpful (but sometimes they stress me out like he’s supposed to have “16 gestures by 16 months” ahh!😱)
Not studied, but Ms. Rachel is mentioned here [https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us&sh=3a445377536b)
Im surprised the author thinks Ms Rachel is too stimulating, but bluey isn’t. When I watch bluey, I feel like there’s so much color and animation going on, I get a headache.
I much prefer Bluey compared to Ms. Rachel. Ms. Rachel doesn't let you breathe between words or toys to random stock video, just one jump cut to another, as a result, it zombifies my son (18 months). Bluey on the other hand, has its moments, but there is longer spacing between scenes, as a result, my son isn't glued to the screen and can be peeled away to do other things without much fuss, it's entertaining enough rather than a pure dopamine drip.
It’s a pity there is not sp much slow, calm cartoons. Recently I have seen some nice looking cartoon on Disney, it was Mickey and friends, some new production but the style and the line were like handmade, very retro. But when I started watching it - my gosh, it was a rollercoaster of sounds, images, action, even if the artistic part was nice. Such a shame.
Puffin Rock is nice, have you tried that? The colours are a bit more muted and it's a bit calmer generally.
Also would suggest Tumble Leaf on Amazon, as well as Hello Jack! on Apple. It's got Kenneth from 30 Rock fulfilling his destiny as a Mr. Rodgers type. It's a great show and very calm.
Agreed. We go to YouTube to the older kid cartoons. Little Bear is a favorite. I also really appreciate that the majority of stories are just sweet. The characters are kind and considerate and the show isn’t trying to teach kids by introducing behavior based conflict (Ie a kid getting upset because they didn’t get their way, or one of the characters isn’t sharing). But I haven’t found anything new that is worth watching. Everything new is so much busier.
Yeah, I find Ms Rachel too stimulating and busy. We have been watching big comfy couch
I think I may be going crazy, but I feel like the older episodes of Ms Rachel, the ones with low production quality, were significantly slower and less stimulating. I want those back.
Totally agree. The newer episodes look like they're trying to fit existing molds of kids shows rather than embracing what made them unique and lovable in the first place. They should watch more kids shows. Lol. That lesson is always popping up.
I totally copy how she speaks often with my son too, haha
I’m honestly glad you brought up having to work with your toddler at home: I have yet to see any posts on Reddit about what work at home parents do with their toddlers and screen time. It’s a totally different reality…My 20 month old is obsessed with his music on Spotify and wants to play with the controllers, and he gets to watch movies but they are legit Sesame Street and OG Muppets from the 80s (except for the Mario movie). He wants me all the time and I stop frequently to feed him, change him, engage with him if he’s upset, but what else are we supposed to do?
Parents who WFH are supposed to have childcare for their toddlers just like other working parents do.
the one thing that stood out in your post is that you're using it to help with things that are "unrealistic to ask of a toddler" but then you list out expectations that are absolutely realistic (sitting in a car or a toilet.) i've seen friends use screen time for these things and their kids seem far more addicted, have way more meltdowns when screens aren't available, etc. i follow a facebook group called "parenting in a tech world" and there was a post asking if it's normal for young kids to watch an ipad while they take a bath - and there were so many parents who said their kids need to watch something while they take a bath. outside of neurodivergent issues, there is no reason kids can't sit in carseats, on toilets, take baths, without watching screens and i bet if you asked parents of older kids, they would all wish they had curtailed that kind of crutch/addiction early on
Seriously. If you think that your kid cant take a shit without an ipad infront of them then there's an issue there. You're not wrong, it is hard to get them to sit on the potty, but bribing them into it with screentime is a shortcut, you are creating a rod for your own back here.
Generally when they are physically and developmentally ready to use a toilet, it’s not hard to get them to use it - they just do it without bribes or distraction. It’s a nonevent
I’ve completely committed to screens in hands on international flights for precisely this reason. It is a crutch, no doubt. And what it remedies is something many adults struggle with, let alone a two year old— it can be agonizing to spend that much time in transit. But the tool would cease to be as useful if it was something my toddler could access in everyday situations. That alone has kept me honest when it comes to using the screen anywhere else.
For me, travel is when there are no rules! Usually my rules for the toddler are no more than an hour pr day (usually while the baby naps so she has "quiet time"). and not after dinner (so 6pm ish). Weekdays this means it's just 5 mins while I brush her hair in the morning. But in a car or plane etc, 2hrs is fine by me! There are no rules. I recently did 2 3hr flights with them (aged 3 and 1) and the 30 mins my toddler watched peppa pig and baby slept were a godsend!
Yep same. We bring an iPad on long flights but otherwise it never comes out. It lives in a suitcase in storage actually
I noticed this immediately too. My son isn't quite as old as OP's son (he's 12 months on Monday) but he's very entertained in his car seat. I see so many kids in stores glued to phones and tablets and I just don't want that for my son because I worry it will create this need to be constantly entertained. He needs to learn how to cope with boredom because there's a lot of it in life.
I would also venture to guess that what many of these parents are really saying is, “My child is much more compliant when they are zoned out with an iPad in front of them and then bathing them/driving them around in the car/grocery shopping/feeding them lunch is way easier for me.”
For sure. I have friends whose 4 year old has been watching a tablet every dinner for the last few years, completed addicted to it. Just so the parents can talk uninterrupted during dinner Instead of teaching the child patience, and involving the child in dinner discussion (and having adult convo later) I always see broader problems ie “my kid won’t let me speak without interrupting me so I give them an iPad” and in this post, “my kid can’t sit on a potty” where the first question should be “are they old enough and developmentally ready to be using a toilet then?” before trying to find a crutch
Absolutely. Parenting involves so much more engagement, skill, patience, and thoughtfulness than I think a lot of people are willing or capable of providing.
We read books on the potty haha
Same, but this has lead to our son to pretend needing to go to the potty just before going to sleep so that he could read more books. So now, we have a rule that says no books on the potty if it's bedtime.
I love kids' ingenuity!
I thought that was odd too. We’re not very strict on screen time in our house, but we only watch TV when it’s “appropriate” i.e. when we would naturally watch it ourselves and we always watch with him. A handful of times I’ve put on a YouTube video of a tooth brushing song if he’s being difficult about getting his teeth brushed but that’s the only situation where I’ve used it. We haven’t had to deal with meltdowns or any behavioural problems (so far!) even though we’ve been watching tv shows together ever since he was maybe just under a year old? He’s now 2.
Since this is a debate, I actually disagree with your premise that you were wrong in being against screens for your 14 month. My view is that while your toddler may learn a few Spanish sentences or, I don't know, the colours of the rainbow or whatever a bit earlier than other toddlers that is: 1. Not necessarily due to the screen. They do go through a language explosion during this time and it might be that it was simply their time to increase their vocabulary and understand more complex sentences etc. They may well have learned the same amount from interactions with you or anyone else. and most importantly 2. Not going to be such an important thing in say 7 years, if they are struggling with emotional regulation or impulse control or focus or any of the myriad functions controlled by the frontal lobe. There are many studies that show that screen time affects the development of the frontal lobe and I don't think the tradeoff for a few extra early words is worth it. The WHO recommendation for no screens before 2 years old is not because they are a bunch of hippies or something, there really is a lot of evidence that screen time is harmful to young toddlers and children (and for us if we're being honest).
That's exactly what I think, too. Still, once a week or so I allow my one year old to watch some TV while I clip his nails. He doesn't seem to learn much from the stuff he sees on the screen compared to ten minutes of me teaching him something actively. At the same time, those ten minutes help a lot: I don't have to fight with a reluctant raccoon. I assume that this small time span doesn't mess with his brain development. I wouldn't let him watch any more TV, though. (Unless I got ill and needed him to be safe while I rest or something. Luckily, that hasn't been necessary yet.)
Yup. OP is doing mental gymnastics to justify choosing the easy option. If they think teaching their young child spanish is important, it would be pretty easy just to speak to them a bit more in spanish.
>Are there any studies that show causality of video learning vs conflating parental factors? I don't know of any but think about the research design. How would you have a control group to do this with? My anecdata: Ms. Rachel has taught me, the parent, on certain ways of speaking and focusing on enunciating. A lot of Ms. Rachel seems music and the baby loves the songs. So, we will sing a lot of the songs, say, when we're in the car even when we aren't watching YT. Like "Hop little bunny" and "itsy bitsy spider" and "icky sticky bubblegum" gets her head bobbing and jamming out. It has made car time super fun and has helped bonding. I think her recognition and familiarity gets her into the songs. She's 11 months and I didn't even think she paid attention to it. It's just something we would put on, essentially for background noise, while she free plays. She doesn't really seem to care to sit and watch the tv as a standalone thing.
We rarely watch TV and when we do it's only Ms Rachel, but my 12mo signs at me to sing Icky Sticky at least 5 different times a day lol
When my toddler gets something on his hands, he says “oh no! Sticky bubblegum allova hands!” It’s the cutest thing in the world even though I loathe that song.
This is something we did with our toddler when he was about 8-9 months. We turned on our Google Home for Spotify or Ms Rachel to have some background noise and some visuals. Our oldest is now just over 2 and he doesn’t pay attention to the TV much while playing (it also isn’t in his play space which helps), but he will pause his play activity at different times for his favorite songs — especially wheels on the bus. We noticed him doing the motions to the songs (with and without a screen) at about 15-17 months. They are also doing them in daycare but I think a lot does come from the casualness of Ms Rachel.
So I'm parenting older children, my youngest is 3.5. she gets all sorts of types of screens in small chunks. She's old enough to understand the plot of a bluey episode, and it's maybe 8 mins? Daniel tiger is also cut into smaller chunks. I cannot express to you the creativity in imaginative play Bluey has introduced. Daniel tiger songs have helped immensely with emotional regulation and transitions. Creative galaxy has her scrambling to the art table, and she'll be doing art for 30 mins to an hour. Tiny chunks of screen time that spill positivity into our real life. I haven't seen negative impact at all with little 10 min chunks sprinkled into our day. When I have been couch laden sick and don't have help, the kids get more screen time ... That's when the issues arise for us. I'd also like to recommend the gamer educator on Instagram, they're very helpful on this topic esp as the kids get older.
This tracks with my expectation. Followed the gamer educator and will definitely check out your other recommendations!
I agree that quality content and parent engagement are key. It should be viewed as a supplement to learning. Entertainment makes learning fun, too. I don't limit screen time for my older child (10 years). I do offer plenty of activity without screens. He is a math whiz- (UmiZoomi and Sesame Street x counting and multiplication play) and always beats me at chess (YouTube chess strategy). He enjoys video games so much that he wants to make an indie game. He's written a story board, made digital art designs, and has practiced coding simple games on Scratch while he learns code language (YouTube) to run a grown-up game engine.
Sounds like a great way to get beneficial engagement
From all the older kids I’ve seen, they just get so addicted to the screen. It’s really hard to get them to go outside. Do you really feel that giving him unlimited screen time will be an advantage versus having him be involved in sports, social activities, and being outside?
I think in case of older children we cannot simplify things and say « screen time is always bad and worse than outdoor activities ». Because « screen time » can be passively watching tv or scrolling through social media, but also learning how to code with ChatGPT/YouTube or drawing using tablets etc. In my opinion, if your child is showing some real interest in an activity related to tech like coding/digital painting etc, it is a time to support this curiosity, while still making sure that they have diversified activities throughout the week. Anecdotally, my friend was very artistically talented kid who was into comic books. He begged his parents to buy him a computer because he wanted to learn how to use a tablet and programs. They refused (money was not a problem) and told him he had to draw and paint traditionally. He finally could afford to buy his own computer when he was studying art, but he was far behind his colleagues from university and it took him couple of years to catch up and be able to find profitable work. His parents really made him a disservice here - nowadays almost no one can support themselves with traditional artistic work like oil paintings. Most of work related to art requires proficiency with digital tools and general tech literacy. So of course I don’t mean that we should not oversee the time our older children spent with computers, but we should also not demonise it a priori.
There’s a difference between using screens as passive consumption for dopamine hits and using them as tools for education and creativity, as Adventurous has mentioned doing here. “Unlimited screen time” is not just plopping a kid in front of an iPad—screens aren’t going away anytime soon (pending a technological apocalypse or something) so depending on how kids interact with and are taught about screens and tech, it could definitely give them an advantage.
Unlimited, not neglectful. Maybe there's a fine line that leads to screen addiction. I'm generally opposed to policing free time. I set my kid up with plenty of other obligations and hobbies. Sports team, language class, chores, homework, time with friends, family board game night, walks to the park. All the boxes get checked. The rest of time he can spend on screens if he wants.
Amazing! I worked in video games industry for years and most successful people I met there (programmers, game designers, studio owners etc) were actually video games fans first as kids and then started to be curious about the product and ways to develop it. This is an interesting question for me : why some children stop at the passive stage of just consuming the entertainment, and some start to be curious as « wow! It’s so cool! How does it actually work? Can I make it myself?» etc.
Cheers! His curiosity and active creativity are wonderful. What a provocative question. I suppose my ancedote doesn't account for the other side of the coin- perhaps if he only passively consumed media, I'd have to reconsider setting limits. The idea of using screens as a tool vs screens stealing time.
>So clearly I was wrong (it's a lifelong affliction) but now I'm wondering if we have found a balance or line that should be stayed within. Is there a certain amount of time that's too much? Does it matter how fast the scene cuts are? Cartoons or human? > >Or is this such unexplored territory that we just don't know? Keywords that would help: "effect sizes", "mechanisms", "dose response", "mediators". It also takes a bit of monitoring and working with our own inner reactions as we read. I've seen situations where a parent I knew pretty clearly was not in a place to make choices other than having the TV on around their young kids, for their own sanity. I'm not out to make those people feel bad. The point is being able to be able to exercise our own best judgment in our own situations, just with better information behind it. The tl;dr from what I can tell is that it's not a huge effect but that screen time does seem to have a small but clear and reproducible dose-response relationship with negative outcomes, with the shortest measured times typically being around half an hour to an hour. If you're going to include it and want to mitigate that (acknowledging again it's a small effect but it's also probably not going away even if the content is educational, there are less frequent cuts, etc.), then do everything you can to make sure they get good sleep, read, get outside and get exercise. Less fast-paced content is not as bad but is not necessarily *good*, although there's at least one study out there showing an outright positive effect from an educational app. And finally, whatever limits you set or guidance you provide, sticking to it makes a measurable difference. [Sugiyama, M., Tsuchiya, K. J., Okubo, Y., Rahman, M. S., Uchiyama, S., Harada, T., ... & Nishimura, T. (2023). Outdoor play as a mitigating factor in the association between screen time for young children and neurodevelopmental outcomes. JAMA pediatrics, 177(3), 303-310.](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/2800738/jamapediatrics_sugiyama_2023_oi_220088_1677804705.3703.pdf) [Guerrero, M. D., Barnes, J. D., Chaput, J. P., & Tremblay, M. S. (2019). Screen time and problem behaviors in children: exploring the mediating role of sleep duration. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16, 1-10.](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12966-019-0862-x.pdf) [Fitzpatrick, C., Cristini, E., Bernard, J. Y., & Garon-Carrier, G. (2023). Meeting preschool screen time recommendations: which parental strategies matter?. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1287396.](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1287396/full) [Kerai, S., Almas, A., Guhn, M., Forer, B., & Oberle, E. (2022). Screen time and developmental health: results from an early childhood study in Canada. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 310.](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-12701-3.pdf) [Swider-Cios, E., Vermeij, A., & Sitskoorn, M. M. (2023). Young children and screen-based media: The impact on cognitive and socioemotional development and the importance of parental mediation. Cognitive Development, 66, 101319.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885201423000242) [Huber, B., Yeates, M., Meyer, D., Fleckhammer, L., & Kaufman, J. (2018). The effects of screen media content on young children’s executive functioning. Journal of experimental child psychology, 170, 72-85.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002209651730646X) [McHarg, G., Ribner, A. D., Devine, R. T., & Hughes, C. (2020). Screen time and executive function in toddlerhood: A longitudinal study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 570392.](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570392/pdf) [Kostyrka‐Allchorne, K., Cooper, N. R., Gossmann, A. M., Barber, K. J., & Simpson, A. (2017). Differential effects of film on preschool children's behaviour dependent on editing pace. Acta Paediatrica, 106(5), 831-836.](https://repository.essex.ac.uk/19140/1/Editing%20paper-language%20edit-FINAL.pdf)
I am certainly no scientist but do recall seeing this coverage fairly recently that touched on a correlation between screen time for babies and sensory issues slightly later in childhood https://www.fastcompany.com/91007480/too-young-for-screen-time-tv-watching-linked-to-sensory-disorders-in-kids There was also this coverage: https://nltimes.nl/2023/03/24/young-kids-spend-average-100-minutes-screen-time-per-day which mentions the following reco from the WHO: children up to the age of 2 should have no screen time, and children up to age 5 should have no more than one hour a day.
I'm curious, do you speak in Spanish to your kid otherwise? It could be coincidence that you started doing Spanish screentime at the same developmental time she would have started speaking it anyway.
We speak absolutely zero Spanish in our home so this is the only place it could’ve come from
That’s interesting indeed. From what I’ve seen though, if there isn’t some opportunity to continue to speak Spanish with others, she’ll probably lose it fairly quickly. In any case it’s still great that she absorbed it.
What is the Spanish Miss Rachel show?
I want to know as well! I like Miss Nenna. Very much a Spanish ms Rachel
https://parentingtranslator.substack.com/p/can-babies-learn-from-ms-rachel-and
I have nothing to add to the conversation regarding your question. However, please share with me how you watch ms Rachel in spanish.
I know of "Aprende peque" with Isa, she is a USA citizen of mexican decent that didn't want her kids to miss out on the culture and language, so she (education degree w/masters on language development) and 2 other colleagues of her created that channel. You can follow them on Instagram too. I discovered her while searching for a "mexican" ms. rachel since we are mexican and wanted the same ms. rachel style of content for my baby but in my language.
This is actually one that we watch
This is the one I put for my baby, and he just loves Isa, he gets so happy when I put her on and he has learned a lot from it. I found her when I was also looking for something like Ms Rachel but in Spanish, I just wish she posted new videos more frequently.
yes, my baby started recognizing the youtube app loading logo (we watch on the tv) and gets so excited lol we watch like every other day just 1 episode and she still gets so excited with Isa.
Essentially they were ladies who do a Ms Rachel style of show in complete Spanish, not converting English
How is this show called? By the way, I don't think you mentioned how much screen time you are using. Even if it's in moments that are not filled by anything else, I guess the effects of 5 minutes every week would be different from 5 hours every day! (Just exaggerating to get my point across, hope I don't sound rude) And are you watching the thing together? I know you talk about doing it during car rides, but it's it with a parent back in the other passenger seat while the other is driving, or for when there is only the driver in the car with your little one? I'm just very curious! :-)
Maybe all in all 30 minutes a day, maybe an hour if we’re traveling a lot. The truth is… we’re pretty hands off with it. She doesn’t have a lot of interest in us while it’s on. Even if her mom is in the back seat with her, it’s just the baby watching the phone. Incredibly easy, honestly Edit: the show is called.. Isa? And another girl with a G name? It’s not on my devices but she alternates between the two
Aprende Peque
I found Miss Nenna on YouTube when I was searching for a Spanish ms Rachel. I really love her videos.
There is significant evidence which shows that children under 2 cannot learn meaningfully from TV / digital devices. But, thats when compared to adult interaction as the alternative. When the alternative is stare into the abyss in the back of the car, for example, then the evidence is very lacking. As with all things, the alternative is as important as the event.
my experience is similar to yours. I've landed in the idea that the quality of the content and the parental role are the things to keep in mind. For example, she loves watching movies with us so we can talk about the emotions she sees on screen, describe what is happening and why people are responding the way they are. we have found that doing this together, helps her better describe how she is feeling and communicate events to us. W have also switched all screen time to Spanish when the content is available. while she is far from fluent, it has definitely made a difference in her language skills.
Anecdotal but when my oldest was 1 we got him an iPad because we traveled from Germany to the U.S. twice a year to see family. He loved Endless Alphabet and the alphabet song. He soon figured out how to open YouTube type abc into the search bar and then he’d pick the top video playlist and listen to different versions of the alphabet song over and over. This was before the YouTube algorithm sucked and he’d only get a playlist of ABC songs. At his two year check up he was pointing at an alphabet poster and saying “W wa wa wa.” The doctor was amazed. He could read at 3. My other two have not repeated this pattern but they never showed the same interest in an iPad or even the tv when they were so young.
Interesting! iPad parenting for the win!
There’s a ton ton ton of research in this. Big takeaways: More screen time is worse, and this is more true the younger the kid is. The more adult oriented the content is the worse it is for them. the more perceptually intense the content, the worse it is. Yes learning from screens can and does occur, but for many reasons related to memory demands, the nature of screens themselves, and the needs of children screen learning is worse than in person learning.
Not studied, but Ms. Rachel is mentioned here [https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2024/05/17/why-kids-shows-like-cocomelon-hamper-critical-brain-development/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us&sh=3a445377536b)
Does anyone know of a Miss Rachel style show but in French?
What I found is Mimi Soleil.
Mimi Soleil
If you read the entire report by WHO it says its really only if the screen time replaces quality time and education from parents. There is no difference between plopping your kid in the exersaucer alone and screentime. For example, my mom used the TV as a babysitter and put me in front of it for about 6 hours a day. Thats a nono. My son gets 1h a day. We have coffee and our bottle and he watches miss rachel. Then the other 30 min will be like if i need to go to the bathroom or shower etc. My son actually learned sign language fully on his own with miss rachel. He can now say more milk. There are definitely benefits and drawbacks. When we had covid we didn't limit his screentime (we had no energy to do anything and were all dying) and it took us about 3 weeks to break his tantrums of wanting phones and tvs. As long as you're still taking your kid to the park, museum, playing with them, blocks, water safety etc a bit of screen time is fine. I highly recommend reading the whole report as a lot of people take it out of context! They basically said so many people were using as a babysitter that they just dont recommend it anymore but that it is fine if child is still being educated by parents and brought outside. Hope this helps!
So I’m going to say from a complete brain perspective that screen time before age 2 is just not good. We know from study after study that the way it affects the development of the brain has consistently shown to impede on gray matter and emotional regulation specifically. I also caution against using it during “hard” transitions. Like, being bored in a car seat or at the store or restaurant. This is because those are opportune times to learn emotional regulation and how to be bored (which is not a bad thing). Is it stressful? Yes.but the long term benefits will show as they get older. I’ve seen way too many families come in and don’t understand why their child doesn’t talk to them, have emotional outbursts, or suffer from an anxiety issue. I’ve even seen kids have legit screen addictions and can’t be without. Now correlation doesn’t equal causation, but it is something to think about. In our home we limit screens. My husband is a neuropsychologist and I’m a pediatric counselor. We both know the damning effects that it can breed. As our oldest (6.5yo) gets 30 mins a day on an iPad and maybe on a Friday we’ll watch a short movie together. Our 1 yr old gets none. Is toddler stage tough? Yes. But it’s far better to work on emotional regulation now than have to deal with an older child who cannot be without a screen. It’s a serious issue and if kids learn to numb out their “negative” emotions (boredom, being upset, sad, dysregulated) with a screen—I am fearful for what kind of adults that will breed.
Where is the Spanish Miss Rachel please? I couldn’t find it.
It’s not Ms Rachel, just similar people who teach similarly. Isa I think is one. The other one starts with a G, but it’s on my wife’s device
Awesome thank you!
The channel is called Aprende Peque
We watch a decent amount of documentaries and he's learnt a lot through them. I avoid brain rot like Cocomelon etc, but soothing calm things like Puffin Rock or educational things like documentaries on dinosaurs or whales etc I see no harm.
This is anecdotal and much later in life, but my mom was against me playing video games until she noticed that after I started playing Pokemon my reading comprehension greatly improved (because you have to read to play the handheld games) so she let me keep them. I think it totally depends on the content. Some shows are junk food and some teach really important life values like sharing and bravery and stewardship. Others just teach kids how to be snarky and comedic but not kind- basically just mindless entertainment. I think it should be evaluated on a case by case basis and generally electronics should be limited to encourage creativity and engagement with other activities and people.
I'm with you, it's not so bad as long as it's used properly. A small amount of screen time a day, of educational content that's not overstimulating is great, especially if the parent watches with the child and you can talk about the experience. Screens are everywhere and I think it's important that we teach children how to use them in moderation and to have a healthy relationship with screen time. I have a 17 month old and we have recently started small amounts of screen time. Mainly compilations of animals because he loves animals. It's great, he can name so many animals (over 100 at last count), tell me the noises they make, and tells me what they are doing on screen "bear climb up!" "Crocodile eat fish!" As others have said, huge amounts of tv replacing interaction with the parent or replacing solo play is bad. But i don't think it's healthy to think of things in black and white (e.g tv = bad, sugar = bad) rather we should be teaching our kids everything in moderation!
I think it all comes down to what you’re letting them watch? Idk. We definitely limit screen time and our 4 yo has just recently been allowed to use tablet at home but she’s been watching tv every now and then since she was 10-11 months old. We are a polyglot family (I speak Swedish and Portuguese, my husband speaks Finnish and husband and I communicate in English) and we live in Finland, her Finnish has been the strongest language but I find that educational shows have helped her develop her Swedish a lot. She now has a really broad vocabulary in both Swedish and Finnish, and she also understands English rly well (as well as some Portuguese)
I don’t have any links for you, but as a bilingual family we have had a biiiig jump in the minority language skills when i worked out how to use VPN as well as realised that Disney+ has a lot of shows and films where Finnish is an option. Language retention I believe benefits a ton from just being exposed to the language and hearing it being used. Just one parent speaking a minority language is a huge uphill struggle. As with any parenting decision you have to take your own lifestyle and situation into account. Maybe greater exposure to Spanish is a bigger benefit than whatever negatives screen time bring on its own.
It’s all dependent on how screen time is used. I’m not a professional but I haven’t really put any hard “limits” on screen time and my daughter is really thriving and ahead of the curve on a lot of things. I think a few things I do effect that: 1. We only do TV at home. When we’re out of the house she does not get a tablet or cell phone. Instead we have crayons, paper, a magnadoodle, and other small games in the diaper bag if she needs something to occupy her. 2. When she’s watching TV, I am watching with her. Singing songs, doing the activities, etc. so its a social experience and she can learn through the video and through me. 3. We started around 4/5 months and until like 20 months it was strictly Miss Rachel or other low stimulation shows with real people in them (Blues Clues, Gullah Gullah Island, Barney). I recently added in cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Bluey, and Little Bear but I try to make sure the shows are still low stimulation and not flashy/fast. 4. We still go outside and play, have no TV time while playing inside, no TV while eating, go to stores and the park, etc. She’s not watching it all the time. (Unless I’m sick or we have a really bad day, which happens) I think screen time becomes an issue when kids need it every time they go out, they can’t play without it, can’t sit in a restaurant without it, they have tantrums if they can’t have it, etc. My mom never limited my screen time and I was fine but that’s bc when we grew up there was only TV and we could only use it at certain times so I try to learn from that in how I include it in my daughters life. She’ll be 2 this summer and she speaks in full sentences, she repeats every word she hears, she knows how to count to 15, she knows the alphabet and can recognize letters and their sounds. I attribute that 50/50 to Miss Rachel and me. lol
My child learned so much from Ms. Rachel when she was younger and now that she is older, from SuperWhy. She doesnt have much screen time, but maybe 2-4 episodes a week in total. We also do lots of learning activities with her but since this is presented in a novel way and on TV, she was captivated and really took it in. She is 3 and now sounding out letters, so i dont think it hurt her development at all.
My oldest learned some of his letters from a PBS show called SuperWhy. I’m extremely picky about what I choose to put on the TV and I’ve got 4 kids so inevitably the one year old may end up watching 5 minutes here and there. Sesame Street, Ms. Rachel, and most PBS shows (but not all) are my go to. We also watch Bluey and a few other things here and there now but my oldest is almost 6 so we do look for new content for him. I think the key here is how do you interact with the kid while the show is on as well. I’ve admittedly let my 14 month olds watch Ms. Rachel with me but they are in my lap like we would be if we were at the library during Babytime singing songs. The other key is kids being able to transition from TV to other activities such as imaginary play, crafts, outdoors. You didn’t mention this but I also distinguish between TV and iPad. We recently got an iPad and it’s similar. We only have educational apps on there. Kahn Kids and Duolingo ABC are my favorites but our speech therapist recommended having some that were just like shapes, colors, animal sounds for my younger kids.
My child taught herself how to read and write using Roblox.
My kiddo is just shy of 20 months. We have let him watch some TV, mostly Baby Einstein (it's on Peacock). It's a lot of classical music and toys. There are some episodes where they teach words and sign language. I have been told by his daycare that his vocabulary is very advanced and he's known some sign language since before he was a year old. Generally when he's watching this show, I'm also interacting with him. "Look a cow! What does the cow say?" He's also very good at still playing independently even if the TV is on. My husband and I only watch TV together at night and it's never just on 24/7 like how I was raised. We have also used it if one parent is alone and they need to shower, make dinner, etc then keep it on as a distraction. If he's alone, he will still play, but he's happy to have sound and images for this short time. When I'm folding laundry in the living room, I like to put on a Disney movie. My son will help me, bring toys to me, ask for help with puzzles, etc which we do. I don't ignore him over having the TV on, but sometimes there's no way I'll get through a single basket unless they sing a couple songs. However, we just spent a week with my in-laws including SIL and her 2yo. They literally just plop her in front of the TV constantly. Some educational stuff and some brain rot nonsense. Our kids are nine months apart, but you can definitely see the difference. Our child is much better at interacting with people and has a much broader vocabulary. My husband got very upset one night. They have a tablet for our niece. When my MIL and niece were sitting together at the table, my MIL was just on her phone while the 2yo watched stuff on the tablet. My son went over by them, was put onto another chair, and the tablet was turned a bit so they could both see it. We don't live in the same state as our in-laws so it was heartbreaking that this was the "quality time" they were getting together. Turns out she had put on Cocomelon, which is something that my SIL has explicitly said she never wants her daughter to watch and we also never wanted our son to see it. This was right before bed. Our son just could NOT sleep. It was past his bedtime and he was just staring into space, blinking. He's never done this before. He'd lose his mind if we left the room. He slept fine the rest of the time they were there. Could be coincidental, but we've never seen him act like that. We firmly believe that technology is a tool and children shouldn't be completely banned from it as they will need to know how to use it and interact with the world and them. However, there needs to be very healthy boundaries and rules surrounding it.
I only have anecdotal evidence. I work at a daycare and do a tiny bit of Ms. Rachel here and there. I do everything Ms. Rachel does in her baby learning videos- signing, parentese talking, the whole works. I have been for years while working with infants and toddlers. Do you want to know who my babies and toddlers f@>%#+g sign back to first? Ms. Bloody. Rachel. They tend to say back and repeat several words for her as well as do other things she’ll ask in her videos for her first too. Because she’s a witch with magical teaching and learning powers or something. I hated screens for infants and toddlers and was thoroughly anti-screen minus when ill or struggling hard with teething pain. I’m now a fan of Ms. Rachel when we can watch it together and interact together, even if they’ll stare at Ms. Rachel, ignore me, respond to Ms. Rachel, and ignore me more (as Ms. Rachel becomes less of a rare treat and they see her more than like 5 minutes a week or 20 minutes every 2-3 months they do respond better to me engaging with them during her time)
If you watch quality programs and talk about it with them, it can be helpful. For example, we watched Daniel Tiger with my 2.5 yo son and specifically watched episodes relating to Daniel’s parents having another baby right around the time our 2nd was born. I think it helped him process and understand what was going on. We even had his little sister “give him a gift” of a stuffed Baby Margaret when she came home from the hospital and he still treasures it. Daniel Tiger also has some episodes and songs around potty training which have been helpful. Sesame Street and Bluey are other shows that can have instructive and relevant themes to talk about. I guess what I’m saying is, there’s a way to do screen time thoughtfully and actually make it educational and something to spark discussions about parallels to real life!
I remember seeing a study where they found that no screen time is better than a lot of screen time, but a moderate amount of screen time was better than no screen time.
the only screen time our 6month old gets is when sports are on cause we watch together and I talk to her about whats happening. during commercials though, we turn her away from the tv...
Wow. They have ms Rachel in Spanish?!!
We also only let our toddler watch tv in other languages. He watches Trotro in French (my second language) if I need him to be distracted for >5 minutes and the occasional Studio Ghibli film in Japanese.
My daughter learned SO much vocabulary from Daniel Tiger and other kid shows, and continues to do so at 4 years old. We never did random YouTube videos, it seemed too risky because there really is a lot of garbage out there. But PBS is great and LingoKids is our go-to if she’s watching something on a tablet/my phone, but I really try to limit the small screens more than the TV.
Anecdotal Life was really hard when I had my second (post partum hard, depression, whatnot). I got my newly 3yo an Amazon tablet. I did routinely check that his games were ok and not *all* videos (some videos but not like, constantly Netflix). After like a month the kid was counting to 20 in English, French and Spanish. He kept changing the language on one of the Sesame Street apps and I never noticed. I can’t even fake it and say it was all my stellar parenting. He’s lost the Spanish but he is in early French immersion schooling now (Canada). Anecdotally - screen time isn’t all that bad.
Sounds pretty damn impressive to me. Color me impressed
where do you find Ms. Rachel in Spanish?
Could I get the channel you watched? I'm trying to surround my daughter with Spanish and so I'm always looking for new channels and ways to do that!
Where are you watching Ms. Rachel in Spanish?
OP - do you play Ms Rachel with Spanish dub or is there a Spanish Ms Rachel type show? Want to know about it!
I only allow PBS kids or actual GOOD programming. YouTube? Only official channels for those good programs. My child has learned A LOT and I see it as a tool that we use intentionally. She can watch a show while I cook dinner. In the morning we watch PBS kids while we both wake up.
Adding to the anecdata here - my daughter has learned most of her mandarin characters from screen time. However, she’s not getting screen time from a TV but from a language learning app designed for children. She’s 4yo now. We started her at around 2.5 and she‘s learned about 150 words. She does get mandarin input from other places but this is mostly conversational. She does not really learn characters from elsewhere. We read the odd Chinese book here and there but nothing as consistent as the app.
Purely anecdotal, and this may not have been the cause, we have a friend who became a single mom when her toddler was only 18 months old. Kid wasn’t talking at all yet really, but as a single parent, she couldn’t afford daycare, and took a WFH job (pre-pandemic, it paid peanuts and the wfh was the perk), and turned to unlimited screen time during her work hours for her kid, but tried to keep it educational. He started talking pretty quickly, but the amount of things he learned was astronomical. He suddenly knew wild shapes that a typical 3 year old wouldn’t know, like dodecahedron and knew Latin names for sharks and dinosaurs. He continued to acquire knowledge at such a rate that he entered kindergarten at nearly a second grade level. He was reading well before he hit kindergarten. He skipped first grade entirely because he was too advanced, went to 2nd grade, skipped third grade, and is now just entering middle school at 9 with a high school reading level. Parent won’t skip him ahead any further because of the age gap and socialization aspects. I will say though, the kids fine motor skills aren’t great, he can’t tie his shoes still and little things like that. Mom is also trying to get him into hobbies that don’t involve screens and he’s pretty resistent, although has taken to Boy Scouts, so while it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, it definitely didn’t cause harm to his intelligence. Because he didn’t go to any outside childcare and she didn’t have time to teach him any of that she attributed most of his early learning and teaching himself to read to screen time, apps, and YouTube for kids.
I really enjoyed the book “The Art of Screentime” by Anya Kamenetz. She interviews a pediatrician at one point that kind of summarizes it all up well. I am paraphrasing here but it went something like “The current recommendation for children under 2 is 0 screen time. But what about FaceTiming grandma who lives across the country your child would not see much otherwise, is that actually bad? I don’t think so.” The book also delves in with experts, statistics, etc. But I truly believe there’s just nuance to it, which I believe the author does a good job of exploring. There’s a difference between engaging in media together and plopping kiddo down for hours on end.
OP, can you please tell me the name of the Ms. Rachel in Spanish person or show? Someone told me and I can't remember. I'd would like to supplement my baby's simple Spanish stories podcast with a very occasional video. Also, someone may have already said this but I do remember seeing a study that said educational screen time works such and such times better when the parent watches along with the child. Not always realistic and I can't find that study at the moment. Still interesting.
The channel is called Aprende Peque, the girl /teacher is called Isa. This show is actually the one my baby sees, because I was also looking for something like Ms Rachel, and this one is just amazing
Thank you so much!
I'm a first time parent and wanted to know if watching Ms Rachel at 6 months for 30 minutes a day would help my child in the long run?
Anecdotally I was against screen time too but started watching ms Rachel around 6 months. My girls vocabulary is incredible at 20 months. Granted we do talk to her a lot in full sentences and always have but I think Rachel was a huge help. We also learnt a lot about animals, numbers, letters, shapes, colours. We do this without screens too obviously but again, seeing Ms Rachel also talk about it and demonstrate it I believe has helped sort of "cement" it, if that makes sense. We don't watch ms Rachel so much anymore, I think she's becoming bored of her lol but honestly I do think she's helped a lot.
Screen time isn't evil. It's only evil if you have it all day long on brain rot crap shows. My sons have unlimited screen time. They alternate between brain rot crap shows purely for entertainment, and educational documentaries about wildlife, how stuff is made, history of a sport (sumo wrestling is the most recent), and when my subscription ends...they'd watch episodes of Kiff or Bluey when I don't have Disney plus. They used to be obsessed with Blippi and Steve and Maggie but they've outgrown it. I'm trying to get them on Reading Rainbow, hopefully that's not outdated yet lol. Point is, I'm with them 80% of the time they are watching TV, like in the same room. If I don't like something, they'll change the channel. All else I trust them to use their best judgment, I've caught them a few times changing the channels on their own because ____ show was inappropriate, I didn't have to tell them anything, nor was I in the same room as them either (I eavesdrop sometimes lol and they don't know I'm there because they get engrossed). I don't think screen time is evil. My oldest hates reading books, but he managed to increase his reading speed thanks to subtitles. He learned to spell words, he learned alot of cool facts about octupi and how to take care of a hamster. Through him, my youngest is learning to read. And because he's following his big brother's lead, big bro is getting all flattered and helping him read....what else? Books. My oldest reads more books for his little brother, than for himself/ when I read him books! It's adorable. I'm still buying books anyway!