Screen time is depriving toddlers of vital speech development.
Staring at screens can slow speech development in toddlers
Research has found that the average tot is missing out on hearing more than 1,000 words spoken by adults every day because they are glued to devices such as iPads.
Experts tracked 220 Australian families over a period of two years to analyse the relationship between family screen use and the language environment.
For every additional minute of screen time, the three-year-olds in the study were hearing seven fewer words, speaking five fewer and engaging in fewer conversations.
Professor Angela Morgan, leader of the speech and language group at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, which had no involvement in the study, said: "To my knowledge it's the most robust examination of looking at screen time and interactions between parents and children that we've had available.
"For all children, the biggest opportunities for language learning are of course in those first few years of life... we know that early predictors do predict your later language outcomes, so it is really important that they've been looking at this question in the early years."