Remember our summer challenge when we asked children to stay away from the screen until noon? We believe minimizing the time spent in front a screen is important for a child’s brain development.

The JAMA Pediatrics just published a study this week on brain development in young children, and how it can be affected by too much screen time. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children younger than 2 avoid digital media other than video chatting. Children ages 2 to 5 shouldn’t watch more than one hour of high-quality children’s programming per day. This new study found the children who exceeded these guidelines were associated with lower measures of “white matter tracts” in the brain that support language and early literacy skills.

The study concludes that more research needs to be done to confirm. For more food for thought, CNN shows several MRI images like the one below to outline exactly what this study is referring to.