3 reasons why you should trade screen-time for cuddles with your little one
But stepping away from scrolling has surprising benefits for both you and your little one. Your voice, your expressions, and your undivided attention are powerful tools that shape your baby's brain, helping them feel safe, seen, and ready to learn.
Lizeth Kruger, Clinic Executive at Dis-Chem Baby City, shares into three major developmental concerns linked to screen time, how it affects your baby, and why it isn't a substitute for engagement.
Speech delay
When babies spend too much time in front of screens, whether it's cartoons or nursery rhymes, they miss out on essential face-to-face interactions that are crucial for language development. Babies learn to speak by hearing real voices, watching lips move, and receiving immediate feedback when they mimic or try to form words, something a screen simply can't provide.
Talking to your baby, even if they can't talk back yet, lays the foundation for communication. Narrating your day, singing songs, reading books, and using eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions all play a vital role in helping your baby learn language. These interactions not only support their language skills but also strengthen your bond. It also helps you better understand your baby's cues, laying the groundwork for a deeper emotional connection. Every conversation, no matter how small, supports your baby's development and deepens your connection.
Overstimulation
Screen content is designed to grab attention - flashing lights, rapid scene changes, loud music and bright colours. For a baby's developing nervous system, that kind of stimulation can easily become overwhelming. In contrast, real-world play moves at a slower, more natural pace. Soft toys, blocks and exploring textures allow your baby to engage on their own terms. This helps them learn to focus and regulate emotions, leading to fewer meltdowns and a more predictable, peaceful daily rhythm. For mums, that means less stress and more space to enjoy the quiet, meaningful moments of everyday life.
Read more | Winter care tips for your child's braided crown
Poor social skills
When babies spend too much time in front of screens, they miss out on essential opportunities for social learning, such as observing facial expressions, hearing tone of voice, and experiencing the natural back-and-forth of real-life interactions, all of which are crucial for developing emotional intelligence and forming social bonds.
In addition according to a UNICEF article Babies need humans not screens article, young children need their dose of boredom. It teaches them how to cope with frustration and control their impulses. If young children are constantly being stimulated by screens, they forget how to rely on themselves or others for entertainment.
Spending time with people, whether it's mum, siblings or other children helps build empathy and confidence. Simple games like peekaboo, pulling faces and responding to their cues teach your baby how relationships work. These moments also bring a lot of joy. Watching your baby smile, respond to your voice or reach out for a cuddle is not only developmentally important, but emotionally rewarding too. I would add a para about reading books and using educational toys to boost cognitive and emotional development 'Your presence, expressions and engagement are more powerful than any screen,' says Kruger. 'Just as your love shapes their early world, so does the care you provide by staying informed and proactive about their cognitive, emotional and social development, which are critical skills that every child needs in order to thrive at home and at school.'
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Hey, new parents – go ahead and ‘spoil' that baby!
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Moreover, research shows that infant cries elicit an apparent psychological need in others to ease their distress. As such, infant cries serve a fundamental purpose for both infant and caregiver. Critically, infants also learn from the responsiveness of their caregivers what it feels like to calm down. This feeling is similar to the internal changes that adults and older children feel when they regulate their emotions – that is, their heart rate slows and they feel at ease. This repeated experience gives infants new life skills: Longitudinal research indicates that infants whose caregivers respond to their distress are better able to regulate emotion and behavior as they get older. For babies, self-soothing likely means sucking on a pacifier or a fist. Later in life, those foundational infant calming skills learned in response to parental care develop into more adultlike habits for regulating distress, like counting to 10 or taking deep breaths. Caregiver-infant bonding Parental responsiveness to infant cries also affects the infant-caregiver relationship. Caregivers provide the first information for infants about the predictability of the social world, the trustworthiness of others and about their own self-worth. This lays the foundation for the quality of the lifelong relationship between a caregiver and child. When infants are soothed in times of distress, they learn that their caregiver is trustworthy and reliable. They also learn that they are worthy of caring, loving relationships, which positively influences their future relationships. Caregiver responsiveness is also associated with a cascade of well-documented outcomes in infants, children and adolescents, including cognitive functioning, language development, self-esteem and future sensitivity to infant needs. The absence of caregiver responsiveness, on the other hand, is linked to later behavioral difficulties and developmental challenges. Studies show that neglected children can struggle to bond with their peers and to cope with rejection. Though one study recently reported that these ill effects might not apply at night – as in, when parents let babies 'cry it out' to teach them to sleep – the major consensus in the literature is that before 4 months of age babies should not be left to cry. I recommend no earlier than 6 months because of the formation of the attachment bond, and highly encourage caregivers to consider the individual abilities of their child. Indeed, some children are able to self-regulate better than others. In addition, there are alternative ways to help babies learn to self-soothe at night that include responding to infant distress. Fortunately, caregivers are biologically primed to care for their infants. Research with animals and humans demonstrates that there are hormones that drive caregiving. 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This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Amy Root, West Virginia University Read more: Should I post photos of my children online? Here's what new parents need to know about sharenting Mothers who recognize others' happiness are more responsive to their infants in first months of life Bonding with baby: what it should feel like and how long it may take Amy Root receives funding from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Solve the daily Crossword
