Beyond Screen Time: What the Research Really Says About Babies, Toddlers & Media | Dr Rachel Barr

𝗜𝘀 "𝗻𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝟮" 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀?

In this 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗟𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 & 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻, occupational therapist 𝗠𝗲𝗴 𝗙𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗲 is joined by 𝗗𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗿, developmental psychologist and professor at Georgetown University, whose research has tracked how infants and toddlers learn from media for three decades.

Together they move the conversation past counting minutes to look at what really shapes a child's media experience: who is watching with them, what they are watching and why families reach for screens in the first place. A practical, evidence-based and refreshingly balanced session for healthcare professionals, early childhood practitioners and parents.

𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗕𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗟𝗟 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡:

• What the "transfer deficit" is, and why babies and toddlers learn about 50% less from screens than from live interaction
• How background TV and parental phone use ("technoference") disrupt play, language learning and parent-child connection
• The three areas most affected by early media use: language, sleep and general learning
• How joint media engagement can make children up to 19 times more likely to learn from a screen
• Why fast-paced, algorithm-driven content makes learning, and switching off, harder
• Why video chat works differently from other screen media, and what grandparents taught us during COVID
• The real reasons parents use media, and how those choices affect children's mood and behaviour the next day
• The trade-off between short-term calm and long-term emotional regulation
• An introduction to the DREAMER framework for understanding family media use
• Practical strategies for time-poor families balancing joint and solo screen use

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦:

0:00 Welcome and audience introductions

4:13 Dr Rachel Barr joins

5:20 Introducing Dr Rachel Barr

7:01 Poll results: how professionals advise families on screens

10:24 Baby Einstein and the early days of baby media

11:34 Rachel's first research and the transfer deficit

15:33 Impacts on language, sleep and learning

17:32 Background TV and technoference

20:47 Screens and the development of self-regulation

23:30 Joint media engagement: why parents make the difference

28:11 Can screen time be as good as a book?

29:13 Fast-paced content, algorithms and the missing "off-ramp"

31:11 Video chat, grandparents and learning during COVID

37:09 Why parents reach for screens

43:38 Short-term calm vs long-term emotional regulation

46:32 Using tech to teach calming strategies

47:25 The DREAMER framework explained

50:11 Balancing joint and solo screen use in busy households

54:14 Recommended resources for parents

55:30 Wrap-up

𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗥𝗦:

𝗗𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗿 is a developmental psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, where she directs the Georgetown Early Learning Project. Her research spans three decades and examines how infants and young children learn from media, including TV, touchscreens and video chat. She is the author of the 2024 book Early Childhood and Digital Media, co-developer of the DREAMER framework used internationally to study family media use, and has been involved in more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and books.

𝗠𝗲𝗴 𝗙𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗲 is an occupational therapist with a deep interest in infant and early childhood development, and the founder of 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲, the parenting app supporting families from birth through to five years. She is the bestselling author of the Sense series of parenting books, including Baby Sense and Sleep Sense.

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