Parents’ smartphone use linked to slower vocabulary growth in children

Researchers followed 747 Norwegian children from around age five to seven, assessing their receptive vocabulary and grammar annually. Parents provided information about their children’s screen habits and device ownership, while the primary parent’s smartphone screen time was obtained from phone-recorded data.

The study found that each additional hour of daily smartphone use by the primary parent was associated with a 0.42-point slower annual increase in children’s receptive vocabulary scores.

Researchers adjusted their analysis for factors including household income and parental education.

“Smartphone use is often attentionally disruptive,” said Dr Junyi Yang, the study’s first author and a researcher at the University of Oslo. “Studies of parent-child interaction show that such disruption can affect children’s word learning and language development.”

Yang added that greater overall screen use could mean fewer opportunities for responsive interaction between parents and children.

Children’s own device ownership was also associated with language performance. Those who owned a digital device at the beginning of the study scored 5.13 points lower in receptive vocabulary and 4.56 points lower in receptive grammar than children without their own devices.

However, device ownership was linked to lower language scores at the start of the study rather than slower language development over time. Most other measures of screen use were not associated with changes in language growth.

“Higher overall screen engagement within the family may replace high-quality interactions, such as shared reading and storytelling activities that promote word learning,” the researchers concluded.

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