Peer-reviewed article
Interactive media use and early childhood development
Mijna Hadders‐Algra ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed article discusses the rapid increase in interactive media use among very young children, particularly mobile devices with touchscreens. In the United States, smartphone availability in homes with children aged 0-8 years grew from 41% in 2011 to 95% in 2017. By 2013-2014, 30-44% of children under 1 year and 77-90% of 2-year-olds in the US and France were using mobile devices. The article introduces a new instrument to measure interactive media use in children under 4 years old.
Key points
- Smartphone presence in US homes with 0-8 year olds increased from 41% (2011) to 95% (2017)
- Mobile devices now account for 35% of total screen time for children, up from 4% in 2011
- 30-44% of children under 1 year use mobile devices; 77-90% of 2-year-olds use them (US and France)
- Overall child screen time remained stable at over two hours per day despite device proliferation
- Touchscreen interfaces require less fine motor coordination than traditional computer input devices
Limitations
This excerpt focuses on documenting trends in media device availability and use rather than evaluating impacts on child development outcomes. The document does not present research findings on how interactive media use affects early childhood development.
Abstract
The study by Juliana Nobre et al. in this issue introduces a novel instrument to assess interactive media use in children younger than 4 years. 1 The development of this instrument is well-timed.Society is confronted with an explosive increase in the use of interactive media.Recent data from the United States illustrate the changes in media use. 2 In 2011, 41% of American 0---8 year olds had a smartphone in the home, whereas in 2017 this number had increased to 95%.Despite the increase in mobile devices, children's overall screen time did not increase.Children continued to use screen media on average well over two hours per day.Yet, the relative time spent with mobile devices increased from 4% to 35% of total screen time.Also, the majority of the youngest children nowadays use mobile devices: in 2013---2014, 30---44% of children younger than 1 year used a mobile device, and 77---90% of 2-year-olds (studies in the United States 3 and France). 4 Unlike the computer's keyboard and mouse that require considerable fine motor coordination, the touch