Toddlers who watch too much television have poorer maths and vocabulary skills when they begin school and are more likely to be picked on by their classmates, a new study suggests.

According to Canadian researchers, most studies that focus on school readiness look at children who have already begun school, attempting to determine what characteristics predict success in the future. They decided to look at children before they entered the school system.

They followed the progress of almost 2,000 boys and girls from toddlerhood through to kindergarten - the equivalent of junior infants in Ireland.

The study found that every extra hour of television a toddler watched at the age of 29 months was linked to poorer maths and vocabulary skills and poorer classroom engagement. They were also more likely to be victimised by their classmates and had poorer physical prowess.

"This is the first time ever that a stringently controlled associational birth cohort study has looked at and found a relationship between too much toddler screen time and kindergarten risks for poor motor skills and psychosocial difficulties, like victimisation by classmates," explained Prof Linda Pagani of the University of Montreal.

Current widely accepted guidelines suggest that infants should be discouraged from watching television and after the age of two, they should watch not watch more than two hours per day.

According to Prof Pagani, these findings ‘suggest the need for better parental awareness and compliance with existing viewing recommendations'.

"It seems that every extra hour beyond (the two-hour limit) has a remarkably negative influence," she emphasised.
Details of these findings are published in the journal, Pediatric Research.