Characteristics of media use and linguistic trajectories during early childhood

Young children today use over 2 hours of media per day on average, and some children use much more. There is considerable societal concern about the effects of media use on young children. However, we know very little about how media affects children’s language development over time. Media use could negatively impact language development by displacing other important activities like shared book reading and interactions with parents and peers. This is a crucial area to study because early language skills are critical contributors to later academic achievement. This study follows children from age 3 to 5 and examine their media use and language skills. Beyond how much media children use overall, data collection includes information about how much children use media with adults, how much children use interactive (apps/games) vs. noninteractive (TV/video) media, and how much children use educational media. These factors may influence the impact of media use on language development. A wide range of data sources are used to capture a nuanced view of children’s media use. Further, information is collected about a host of covariates that are likely to be linked to both media use and language development. This allows for the identification of the unique relation between media use and children’s language development during this crucial time frame. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.