A phone can keep a toddler busy while a parent makes dinner. A cartoon can make a difficult meal a little easier. For many families, screens are simply part of everyday life.
But new research is giving parents another way to think about screen time. Instead of only asking how many minutes a child spends on a device, it may be worth asking: What is that screen replacing?
A 2024 study published in JAMA Pediatrics followed children between 12 and 36 months and found that greater screen exposure was linked with less conversation at home. As screen time increased, children tended to hear fewer words from adults, make fewer sounds themselves and have fewer back-and-forth exchanges with their parents.
That matters because young children learn language through interaction, not just by hearing words from a television, tablet or phone.
But not all screen use is the same. Another large review published in JAMA Pediatrics, covering 100 studies and more than 176,000 children under 6, found that the way screens are used matters. Background television and age-inappropriate content were linked with less favorable developmental outcomes. Watching or using media together with a parent, however, was linked with better cognitive outcomes.
Parents’ own phones may matter too. A 2025 review looked at parental device use around children under 5. Researchers found small links between frequent interruptions from phones and areas such as children’s behavior, attachment and their own screen use. Researchers sometimes call this “technoference,” when technology interrupts interactions between a parent and child.
The American Academy of Pediatrics now encourages parents to think beyond a simple screen-time number. Its guidance asks families to consider the child, the content being watched, whether screens are being used mainly to calm a child, what they may be crowding out, and how families communicate about media.
For parents, the message is not that every cartoon is harmful or that children need a screen-free childhood.
The practical goal is simpler: turn off background TV when nobody is watching, protect time for meals, conversation and play, choose age-appropriate content, and watch with young children when possible.
And one important point: the AAP says current evidence does not show that screen use causes autism.
The bigger concern is what young children may miss when screens regularly take the place of talking, playing, exploring and connecting with the people around them.
