As early exposure to digital devices becomes increasingly common, especially for tantrum management by parents, experts explain how this practice could hinder children's emotional development. Over the past few years, children born into the digital revolution have been surrounded by screens, sometimes even getting exposed to them from their very early moments. One way this manifests is through the increasing tendency of parents to use digital devices as a tool to manage their children's emotions, especially negative ones.
While this method could prove effective in the short term, emerging research suggests it could significantly hinder children's emotional development, leading to long-term behavioural and emotional problems. “Controlling emotions, or emotional regulation, improves with age and through social interactions with others. Screen devices limit the opportunities for the types of interactions necessary for developing emotional regulation,” Dr Michael Nagel, associate professor of Child and Adolescent Development at the University of the Sunshine Coast, told Euronews Health.
Recently, a team of researchers from Hungary and Canada have looked into how using digital devices as a tool to stop children’s tantrums, or as “digital pacifiers,” could impact children’s emotional development. The findings in the journal Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The study revealed that children who were frequently given digital devices during tantrums showed poor.
