Technology's impact on vocabulary skills in infants and toddlers

Abstract

Technology is becoming increasingly prominent in today’s society, and children are being exposed to screens at younger ages than in previous years. This exposure has led to teachers and parents questioning how technology use may be affecting children’s vocabulary skills. Previous research has primarily focused on technology’s effect on reading skills in school age children and thus leaves gaps in knowledge regarding technology’s effect on younger children (Yienger, 2016). In addition, other studies have shown that an increase in screen time is associated with a decrease in learning (Neophytou et al., 2019). However, these types of studies focus on learning as a whole, and do not provide data on vocabulary use exclusively. Thus, the current study examines the correlations between technology use and vocabulary development in infants and toddlers. It was hypothesized that an increase in technology use would be associated with lowered vocabulary skills in children. In this study, parents were asked to report how often their kids use tablets and handheld devices, and also reported their children’s vocabulary through the Mac-Arthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory checklist (Fenson et al., 1994). There was not a significant correlation between amount of technology use and vocabulary percentile, r(249)=.055, p=.388. There was, however, a correlation between technology use and age, r(265)=.230, p<.001. The results suggest that an increased amount of screen time does not lead to lower levels of vocabulary in children. Results also showed that as children age, they are utilizing more technology than younger children, yet their vocabulary skills do not appear to be affected by this increase. These results can have certain implications, such as parents and teachers having peace of mind knowing that some technology use will not affect their toddlers’ vocabulary, and that they can continue to use technology to further their kids’ learning.