Why we should be concerned about children spending so much time on mobile phones - Dr Charlotte Armitage

In my professional opinion I think it is the biggest barrier to psychological health facing this generation, for a multitude of reasons starting from birth onwards.

Concerningly the anecdotal evidence that I’ve gleaned from my work delivering the Device Wise Reduction Programme for schools and councils, as well as clinically, seems to support my theory that the overuse of devices in the early years is setting children onto a trajectory for problems later in their lives.

Being on screens acts as a barrier to interpersonal development, if we as parents are on devices, and our children are on devices, it becomes missed opportunities for learning and connection which children need.

The more attached a child becomes to a device in the early years, the bigger the impact it has on their ability to reach developmental milestones throughout their lives.

Colleagues of mine who work in speech and language services have reported that they have seen a significant increase in the number of children aged two and half to three years that present with language delay and this is attributed to the child spending too much time on devices.

Ultimately children need to be communicated with to learn how to communicate, but with the increase of child related products which accommodate devices such as prams with device holders on, children are spending more time in front of screens than communicating with others around them.

My biggest concern is the impact that all of this has on the development of interpersonal skills. If a child starts school unable to communicate effectively, this has an impact on their ability to integrate into the educational environment from an academic and interpersonal perspective.

If children don’t form friendships at school, they are less likely to feel happy at school and are therefore less likely to engage in education. It then becomes a vicious cycle with a child choosing to spend more time at home on devices because they don’t feel that they have friends to play with.

There are a number of professionals who are all witnessing the consequences for child development of too much time on devices and collectively we are gravely concerned about where this will end.

Despite the cause for concern from professionals, these worries have been met with rebuttal regarding the science base. Speaking as a Chartered Scientist, it would be very difficult to conduct a study proving a causational impact rather than correlational impact of devices throughout the lifespan.

For now, the most sensible option is to take into account the experiences of those working on a daily basis with children; teachers who have witnessed changes over the past decade, speech and language therapists, doctors, psychotherapists and others who can provide us with insight into the problem.

In my experience, I find that children often don’t want to spend time on their devices but do so because that is what is normalised at home or because the device is too powerful, drawing them in when they’d actually rather be seeing friends in real life. There is still a lot of work to do to fully educate ourselves on the true insidious impact of devices on mental health and child development but things are changing.

Dr Charlotte Armitage is a psychologist, psychotherapist and founder of the Device Wise Reduction Programme.