• Read this blog article and possibly send it to families:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/screen-time-and-language-development/

• Use the Research:

This study by Chonchaiya and Pruksananonda found that children who began watching tv before 12 months and who watched more than 2 hours of TV per day were six times more likely to have language delays!  Yikes!!

This study by Duch et. al. also found that children who watched more than 2 hours of TV per day had increased odds of low communication scores.

There are more studies out there that continue to show that watching TV early and often increases your child’s chances of having a language delay.  That could mean late talking and/or problems with language in school later in life.

Increased screen time has also been linked to attention problems, short-term memory problems, and reading problems.  All of which can play into your child’s ability to learn language as well.

• Do it Gently: Provide information in newsletters or as articles at first instead of specifically saying “I know you’re doing this and you’re harming your child”.  You can always take a more direct approach as you move forward.
• Do it in Person: If you take a more direct approach, make sure it’s face-to-face conversations so there’s no doubting your tone.
• Don’t accuse, act as a resource: Ask families if they’re looking for ways to help at home and say “some families have found really good success by reducing screen time at home, would you like for me to send you some resources on how to reduce screen time to improve language skills?”