Screen time in schools creating 'crisis' in children's health by damaging speech and eyesight, doctors warn

More than 150 clinicians have warned screen time in classrooms is fuelling a 'crisis' in pupils' speech and language development and must be cut down. The professionals, who include GPs, paediatricians, audiologists and speech therapists, said children are developing problems 'earlier and more severely than in previous years'.In a letter to ministers, they also said there has been an increase in children with poor eyesight, which has been linked to screen time exposure.And they said the Government needed to be 'alert' to the 'impact of the sustained rise in screen-based learning' on 'children's physical and developmental health'.The letter, sent to Education Secretary Lucy Powell and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, said the use of tablets, laptops and interactive whiteboards 'exploded' during the pandemic and has 'never been rolled back'.It warns: 'A generation is being taught on devices and platforms that have never been subject to systematic, child‑focused testing for their cumulative impact on children's eyes, ears or speech, and we are the clinicians who will spend the rest of our careers treating the consequences.'The signatories include Dr Louise Milne, consultant paediatrician at Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust, and Dr Sanjiv Nichani, a senior consultant paediatrician and co-founder of the Children's Intensive Care Unit at Leicester Children's Hospital.They said around £900million a year is spent on education technology – known as EdTech – in English schools, but there are no official checks on how the products affect physical health. More than 150 clinicians have warned screen time in classrooms is fuelling a 'crisis' in pupils' speech and language development and must be cut down (file picture)Almost one million children are now using device-learning in every lesson at school, recent analysis suggests.The letter adds: 'No drug, food product, or toy is given to millions of children without a single safety check.'Yet, astonishingly, education technology devices and platforms currently used by millions of pupils in schools and for homework every day of the week face no equivalent child-focused health scrutiny.'As a country, we need to wake up to this now, and start rolling back screen use in schools before the damage compounds further.'They said they are 'especially concerned' about the use of one-to-one devices in early years education.'Language acquisition depends on rich, responsive, face-to-face interaction that screens, however well designed, cannot replicate,' they wrote.'A three-year-old spending three hours a day on screen misses an estimated 194 conversational turns and 1,139 adult words daily. These are losses that compound into hundreds of thousands over a year.'The letter demands proper Government 'health checks' on products for schools, and new guidelines for safe daily screen exposure in schools. The professionals, which include GPs, paediatricians, audiologists and speech therapists, said children are developing problems 'earlier and more severely than in previous years'. Pictured: shadow education secretary Laura Trott, who said there is an 'overuse of screens in schools'Reacting to the letter, Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said on X: 'Children are using screens for hours at a time at school, and it’s not good for them. Labour were far too slow to wake up to the harms of social media and phones in schools. 'Now they are repeating the same mistake with overuse of screens in schools and for homework. We know what works: good teachers, textbooks and pens.'Ministers introduced a mobile phone ban for schools in the summer, but devices used for learning are excluded.Jane Rowland, from the campaign group SafeScreens, said: 'No other product is put in front of millions of children without a single safety check, yet screens now dominate the school day and follow children home in the evening. We are gambling with the health and safety of millions of children, every single day.'Dr Becky Foljambe, a GP and the founder of Health Professionals for Safer Screens, added: 'We can't keep prescribing glasses and speech therapy for a problem that schools are making worse.'A government spokesman said: 'Used well, technology can be a powerful tool to support learners who need it and free up teachers to deliver the excellent education every child deserves.'Evidence-gathering is vital to getting this right, and we're committed to working with teachers, leaders and parents to help them use technology most effectively as the evidence evolves.'