According to a recent study children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years who spend time on tablets and computers are more likely to have speech delays. The study involved almost 900 children, 20% of whom on the average spent 28 minutes looking at some computer generated screen.

Guess what? For every 30 minutes longer spent in front of that Iphone or something similar, there was a whopping 49% high risk of delay in speech development.

My response to this study: Duh! If you are sitting in front of a computer screen instead of listening to your parents try to talk you, imagine what happens: You don’t learn as much speech.

While this study just addressed issues with speech development, there are many more problems with excessive computer time.

Childhood obesity, for example, is at its highest level ever and the more time spent on the computer, the less time exercising.

What about socialization? Virtual friends in my mind just don’t cut it. During play time spent with other children, kids learn invaluable social skills, which can help them their entire lives.

While admittedly computers can assist in reading skills, writing requires full sentences with organization and not just abbreviations and random thoughts seen in Twitter and texts.

Finally, young children do not need to multitask from one screen to another. Instead, they should experience random play, which in my mind is light years better than anything offered by the internet.