14/01/2026
Love this post re: current press around screen-time…
🙌”we need to move beyond easy headlines and parent-blaming…”🙌
There’s been lots of discussion recently about the effect of screen time on children’s speech and language development.
Screens are now part of everyday life: children sit assessments on screens, learn through digital tools, and grow up in a world where technology is unavoidable. The real challenge isn’t the screens themselves, but what children may be missing out on if screens are used excessively – and, crucially, why screens are being relied on in the first place.
Babies and children learn best through time spent playing and interacting with people and the world around them. Using screens with children can be an opportunity to share and chat together. Crucially, though, children need lots of other shared experiences that they can chat about with the people around them. When these opportunities are limited, so is speech and language development.
But for many families, high screen use can be a symptom of poverty, stress, lack of support, and a lack of clear, accessible information from pregnancy onwards.
The decline in children’s speech, language and communication skills is a public health emergency. This we know. What will really make a positive impact is:
1. Tackling poverty,
2. making sure families can access practical guidance on supporting speech and language development early on, and
3. properly training early years and school staff so children get the support they need from day one.
If we’re serious about improving outcomes for children, we need to move beyond easy headlines and parent-blaming. What we really need is for politicians and commentators to spend as much time thinking about poverty and the lack of parental information and early support for speech and language skills as they do about the impact of screens.
💡We offer guidance to parents and teaching staff on how they can use screens with children in a safe and healthy way. Find it here >> https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/about-us/news-and-blogs/screen-time/
