The American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) recommends parents to avoid television for children under the age of two, because it would disrupt the parent-child interaction. İnstead of media exposure they advise parents to focus on interactive play for appropriate children development (1). In a study, 90% of parents report that their children under 2 years of age watch some kind of electronic media.

The first 3 years of life is characterized by rapid brain development. It is known that environmental factors such as intensive screen exposure negatively affect language development in this period. In a study, it was found that young children interact less with their parents when they watch television or video, and there is a relationship between delayed language development and screen exposure. In a study including 119 infants, the screen exposure time of children was found to be 3.29 hours on average and it was shown that children who watched TV over 2 hours per day had low communication scores (2).

The noise and visual stimulation of TV programs in the background are known to be distracting for children. It is stated that screen exposure in the background also has a negative effect on language development (3). When used appropriately, the media can contribute to daily life. Otherwise, the media can replace many important activities such as face-to-face interaction, time spent with the family, play outdoors, exercise, sleep and adversely affect children’s language development.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) recommends that the use of media under the age of 2 should be avoided, and parents should create their own family media plan. APA also recommends that parents who wish to promote digital media to an 18-24 month old child, should select high-quality programs that the child can understand what they see and watch it together. If the child between two and 5 years of age is going to watch the screen, it is recommended to limit it to 1 hour per day with quality programs (4).

Keywords: children, speech delay, language development, screen exposure, media