Solo Screen Time Is a ‘Unique Peril’ for Young Children Already at Risk, Researchers Report

A small but important study finds that unsupervised, solitary screen time – on TV or handheld devices – may worsen behavioral and emotional challenges in  young children who already struggle with language skills.

The findings, published last month [March 2026] in Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, show that preschoolers and kindergarteners with poor communication skills and smaller active vocabularies developed more behavior problems over six months if they spent more time alone on screens. Boys spent more time alone on screens and showed more behavior problems than girls.

The effects were most evident among children averaging just 10 to 30 minutes of solitary screen use on televisions, phones or tablets per day across a week. More time alone on screens was also linked to more emotional problems later on. However, screen time did not consistently make emotional problems worse for kids who already had language difficulties.