Early years is an important and sensitive period for language development. Available data suggest that speech and language disorders are found in 15-25% of pre-school children, and these disorders are more common in boys, with three times as many delayed language development and twice as many speech and language disorders as in girls. During the past decades, modern family life is „saturated“ with technologies and various screen based media use, bringing in researchers‘ debates on the effects of it on child development. Thus, we aim to analyse the associations between screen-based media use, both duration, e.g., screen time, type of it (TV, PC, tablet, smartphone) and content (e.g., animation, games, short videos), and pre-schoolers’ language skills.

Data coming from two samples of pre-schoolers (3 to 5 years old), gathered in year 2017 (N=563) and in year 2021 (N=260) were used in this study. Parents of children reported the child’s screen use, speech problems and language skills.

Results show around 20 per cent of pre-schoolers (15% girls and 25% boys) have speech problems and almost one-fourth (15% girls and 30% boys) were rated by their parents as having less language skills than peers, with the comparable proportion in both samples. The less language skills and more speech problems were significantly related to longer screen time, and especially to TV viewing and using smartphones for viewing short videos. Results of multinomial regression analysis revealed that screen time was the main predictor in distinguishing children with better language skills in comparison to other pre-schoolers. Also, child gender and parental education were additional, but not permanent, predictors of language skills.

Discussion highlights the practical implications of the results and some methodological limitations, as well as the need for longitudinal studies in a field.

Research suggests that screen use may negatively impact early language development in children This may potentially be caused by reduced parent-child face-to-face interactions - an essential factor for early language acquisition. Few studies have directly examined this possibility. This study investigated the link between children’s screen time, the duration of parent-child verbal interactions, and children's language skills. Mothers of 540 children aged 2;0 to 4;0 years completed a questionnaire detailing their child's daily screen time and time spent talking with adults on a typical weekend day. To assess childrens’ vocabulary and grammatical skills, parents also completed the Estonian CDI-III. Results indicated that prolonged screen time was associated with shorter durations of parent-child conversations. As predicted, being male, higher screen time, and shorter duration of talking with adults were related to poorer vocabulary and grammatical skills.

The study highlighted the importance of reducing screen time in young children and encouraging meaningful face-to-face conversations with adults to support early language development.

Relationships between screen time and cognition in early childhood are reportedly mixed. Sleep is important for children’s learning and memory and there is mounting evidence that screen time disrupts sleep. Children who meet the recommended guidelines for screen time, physical activity, and sleep, perform better on cognitive measures (Walsh et al., 2018). Some studies also find that sleep moderates the relationship between screen time and cognition (e.g., Nathanson & Beyens, 2018). Therefore, we incorporate sleep into investigations of screen time and early cognitive development. Other factors that could explain the mixed findings are the content type children engage with, such as entertaining and educational, and whether they engage passively or actively with the content. Therefore, we take a comprehensive approach to investigating screen time and cognitive development. We measured two hundred 3- to 5-year-old Australian children’s executive functions (EFs) using the Early Years Toolbox (https://www.eytoolbox.com.au/): visuo-spatial working memory, attention shifting, and inhibition. How much screen time predicts EFs and whether it interacts with sleep, content type, and interaction levels will be discussed.

The rapid growth of digital technology has sparked global concerns about its effects on young children’s cognitive development. While a recent meta-analysis found no relationship between overall parent-reported screen time and executive functions (Bustamante et al., 2023), researchers acknowledge that evidence remains inconclusive and call for further studies that consider contextual factors of screen use, such as content type, device type, age of onset and activities during screen-free time (Huber et al., 2018; Lakicevic et al., 2025). Additionally, methodological challenges in measuring executive functions (EFs) may contribute to inconsistent findings. On the one hand, "pure" EF tasks for young children are difficult to design, as performance is heavily influenced by developing language and reasoning. On the other hand, strictly controlled lab tasks may lack ecological validity, given the ultimate goal of understanding the effects of digital technology on children’s real-life functioning.

This recent study examined the relationship between preschool children's screen use and executive functions, assessed both by lab tasks and parent and teacher reports. The Shape School, Missing Scan, and Head and Feet tasks were administered to 101 preschoolers (55.4% female; M = 59.65 months, SD = 6.55) to assess set shifting, working memory, and inhibitory control. Parents reported children's daily screen use across different devices and provided contextual information on screen use. Additionally, parents and preschool teachers of 68 children completed a short EF difficulties scale developed by the authors of this study. We hypothesize that screen time will correlate more strongly with parent- and teacher-reported EF difficulties in daily life than with task performance, with effects varying by device type and screen use context.