Infant Screen‑Time Study

The Singapore longitudinal study followed 168 children from the GUSTO birth cohort with repeated brain MRI at ages 4.5, 6 and 7.5 across more than a decade of follow‑up. (sciencedirect.com) Higher screen exposure before age two predicted accelerated specialization of visual and cognitive‑control brain networks, an effect not observed for screen time measured at ages three and four. (medicalxpress.com) Those network changes were linked to slower decision‑making measured at about age eight and to higher self‑reported anxiety by roughly age 13 in the same cohort. (neurosciencenews.com) A related paper from the same research group found frequent parent–child shared reading at age three significantly weakened the association between early screen exposure and altered brain network development. (child-neurology.org) The UK government’s first national guidance for under‑5s, published 26–27 March 2026, advises avoiding screens for under‑2s except shared activities, limiting 2–5‑year‑olds to about one hour a day, and keeping mealtimes and the hour before bed screen‑free. (gov.uk) In practice, that evidence and guidance support school‑home strategies such as promoting daily 10‑minute shared reading at drop‑off via a one‑page tip sheet to families (recommended in the UK guidance and shown to buffer effects in the GUSTO analyses). (gov.uk) ( ) For classroom flow, replace brief screen‑based calming or reward routines with short, tactile STEAM transitions (for example, a 3‑minute paper‑engineering popper or simple coding bead‑sequence) to give children multisensory practice that targets cognitive control and decision speed — the study tied infant screen exposure to later decision latency. (sciencedirect.com) ( )