SAN ANGELO, Texas — As electronics become more and more prevalent today, children are being introduced to enormous amounts of screen time, but does too much screen time damage a child’s brain development?
Dr. Sara Halfmann, a pediatrician with West Texas Medical Associates, said she admits this is a question that she is asked often during appointments.
“Even some of the educational TV shows that are teaching the child how to read or spell that is not as beneficial as learning face to face with a parent telling them this is the letter "D" this is the number one," Halfmann said.
But the question remains does the constant screen interaction cause brain damage?
“Kiddos under the age of two can actually have speech development problems if they are in front of a screen to long and that’s because they aren’t interacting with the parent, so we see speech delays,” Halfmann said.
We can verify that too much screen time can damage brain development especially when it comes to speech, even if a child is older than the age of two.
“Technology should never be a baby sister if mom and the baby want to sit down together and look at an educational book online together that’s fine, but it is still that face to face interaction that they need,” Halfmann said.