Paris (AFP)

Children exposed to screens (television, game console, tablet, smartphone, computer) in the morning before school are three times more likely to have language problems, according to researchers.

If in addition, they discuss "rarely, if ever" the content of screens with their parents, these children multiply by six their risk of having language problems, according to this study published Tuesday in the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin (BEH ) from the public health agency France (SpF).

"It is not the time spent in front of the screens, on average twenty minutes in the morning, but the time of day that has an impact," said one of the researchers, Dr. Manon Collet of the University of Rennes. "This will exhaust their attention and make them less able to learn," she adds.

The study cannot prove the direct cause and effect link, but establishes a certain statistical link, reinforced by the results of medical research already published, continues the researcher.

The use of digital media has increased over the past decade, including for young children who have access to television, computers, game consoles, tablets and smartphones, say the authors.

Studies have shown that young children exposed to screens have less emotional interaction with those around them, which is nevertheless necessary for their psychomotor development, in particular language development.

In France, children's language development is assessed in school medicine at the age of 4, according to a scale validated by the French National Authority for Health (HAS). French studies have shown that 4 to 6% of children have primary language disorders.

The study involved 167 children with language impairments and 109 who were free. Excluded were children whose language impairment was due to pathologies or disabilities (prematurity, congenital disease, neurological, psychiatric or hearing disorders) as well as those whose parents did not speak French.

These are children of Ille-et-Vilaine, born between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012 when they were aged 3 and a half to 6 and a half, age group corresponding to the period language testing.

Among children with language disorders ("cases"), 44.3% were exposed to screens against 22.0% of those who were free (control group, comparison).

"We have found that the cases and controls who were exposed to the screens in the morning before school were three times more at risk of developing primary language disorders," notes Dr Collet.

The children in this study spent an average of one and a quarter hours a day in front of a screen.

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