Technology Use for Your 1-Year-Old

Now Is the Right Time!

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your child’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship and ensure your child develops a healthy relationship with technology. After all, technology is simply a set of tools that can serve the beneficial purposes of entertaining, educating, creating, connecting to others, and making life easier.

The World Health Organization recommends for one-year-olds, the following:¹

• Be physically active several times a day in floor-based play, and for those not yet active on their own, 30 minutes of tummy time is essential;
• They may not be restrained for more than an hour (in a high chair, stroller, or sitting in front of the television or a device).
• When sedentary, the WHO encourages reading together or storytelling instead of using devices.
• Screen time is not recommended.
• Get 14-17 hours (0-3 months) and 12-16 hours (4-11 months) of quality sleep, including naps with consistent bedtime and wake times.

Infants ages 0-11 months are learning about who they are as separate individuals with bodies, minds, and feelings. They are growing socially, emotionally, cognitively, and linguistically at a highly rapid pace. This age group develops their brain connectivity more these years than at any other time. 0-3 year olds are making one million neural connections per second.²

Technology for infants can pose serious challenges. A large new study shows that one-year-olds who view screens for between one and four hours a day show developmental delays by age two, three, and four.³ Their brains are wired for the first time and require interaction with you and their environment to stimulate those neural pathways to form and grow.

Technology highly entertains and stimulates children, so it can become a source of conflict and make it difficult to separate an infant from a device. Young children whose brains are shaping their architecture through relationships, play, and experiences in the first three years of their lives require interaction with others and play to develop in healthy ways.

The World Health Organization notes that a significant risk factor for children’s healthy development and well-being is being sedentary longer than necessary—not getting enough physical movement and exercise and not getting enough sleep due to technology use.

We know that growing a healthy relationship with technology requires regular conversations among caregivers and a commitment from the whole family to become intentional about their use of technology, including appropriate boundaries and safety practices. Ensure you include all caregivers in that dialogue, including grandparents, other relatives, nannies, and friends. Though today is not the time to start them on device use, you can learn how to model your technology practices below so that when the issue arises in future years, you’ve modeled a healthy relationship with technology.

Modeling Today for a Future Healthy Relationship with Technology

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, learning about what developmental milestones your child is working on can help you know which aspects might be more difficult for your child regarding technology use.⁴

• 0-3-month-olds respond to their parent’s voice by turning their head, quieting, or smiling. They make eye contact and cry differently depending on the situation. They coo and enjoy playful facial interaction with others. They also can be comforted by a parent’s touch or cuddling.
• 4-6-month-olds listen and respond when spoken to and make consonant sounds through babbling to gain attention. They make different sounds to express feelings and enjoy playful interactions like peek-a-boo. They raise their arms to be picked up.
• 7-9-month-olds use sounds and syllables in babbling to communicate and gain attention. They recognize their name and turn to objects and people when mentioned. They participate in two-way communication, can follow simple directions when paired with physical gestures, and offer simple nonverbal cues like head shaking to indicate “no.”
• 10-12-month-olds who use “Mama” or “Dada” can follow simple directions and say one or two words with complete sentences of imitation babbling. They understand “no” and use their hands to communicate needs. They point to objects of interest and explore when placed on the floor.

Actions

Model healthy technology habits.

• Because technology plays a significant role in family life, modeling how you use technology teaches young children more than your words ever could.
• Take a moment to think about the following:  How are you disciplined about technology?  Do you have rules for putting the laptop down and working away at the end of the day? Do you have times when you turn off or leave behind your phone? Share those practices with your child so that they understand that it’s not only children who have to manage devices and cultivate healthy technology habits.
• Be sure that when you share the focus with your young child, whatever they are drawn to, your phone is put away and notifications turned off so that those distractions do not tempt you. Your focus will help build the critical executive function skill of focusing on your young child.
• Notice how you cope with challenges and uncomfortable feelings. Do you tend to use technology as an “escape”? Reflect and decide on ways in which you are going to calm down rather than tune out.

Here are some tips for time with your infant:

• Promote your child’s healthy development. Sing songs while waiting in line or play games like “I Spy” instead of using devices to fill the time.
• Narrating your day and experiences with your preverbal child, who works hard to learn words, will support their language acquisition. Storytelling is also an excellent way to promote language comprehension.
• Notice and observe your child and their feelings as a guide. You might notice your child feeling more anxious, angry, or frustrated after time on a device. You might then say, “It seems like you are feeling _______. Is that right?” Be sure you reflect and learn from that indicator that it’s too much, and allow your child plenty of time to spend on play, sleep, and other critical activities.
• Smile at your infant.
• Make eye contact.
• Use caring facial expressions.
• Be physically gentle and caring with your infant.
• Use words to celebrate and encourage. Recognize and call out when all is going well. When your infant tries new things, call it out: “I notice you reached for your toy. I love seeing you try new things.”
• Build celebrations into your everyday routines. Promote joy and happiness by laughing, singing, dancing, hugging, and snuggling to appreciate one another.

Closing

Check out our other infant tools to learn how to promote confidence and happiness in your child.