Go into any mall, walk down a busy urban street, or sit in a casual restaurant, and one of the most common sights is a young child playing with a phone or other digital device. The great electronic babysitter has become the behavior management tool of choice for many parents.

That's despite the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics says there should be no screen time at all (except for video chatting) for children younger than 18 to 24 months, and kids 2 to 5 should be limited to 60 minutes or less a day.  

There are significant reasons why it's smart to follow those guidelines. One 2022 study published in  JAMA Pediatrics found that for boys, there is an association between screen time exposure as a 1-year-old and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder at age 3.

That means if screen time totaled two to four hours daily, their risk more than tripled.

Now another study in the same journal has found that when parents use mobile devices to calm kids down, they deprive children of the chance to learn emotion-regulation strategies that help them cope with frustration.

The result is that they become more hyperreactive, more frazzled by adverse situations, and less able to use executive functioning to be attentive, remember instructions, and juggle tasks.

Next time your little one acts up, identify the cause of the upset and use nondigital distractions you can perform together (games, books, changing locations) to help your child learn self-directed coping skills.