English on the screen negatively impacts Swedish children’s language development
08 April 2025
Jonas Roslund
Five-year-olds who consume a lot of digital media in English have poorer language skills in Swedish. This is shown in new research from Linköping University. According to the researchers, the debate should therefore be more about the quality and language of the content than about screen time.
Anett Sundqvist investigates the impact of digital media on small children.Photographer: Jonas Roslund
“English has a huge presence even on small children’s digital media. Parents may think that this will make their children learn more English, but we see that this seems to be at the expense of Swedish,” says Anett Sundqvist, senior associate professor at the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning at Linköping University.
In the study, the researchers examined the vocabulary and the ability to understand the rules of the language, i.e. grammar, of 89 Swedish five-year-olds. Parents were also interviewed about their children’s media habits. How much screen time do they usually have? What do they watch and in what language? The content was then ranked based on whether it was educational and gave positive messages or contained violence and was frightening.
Impact on vocabulary and grammar
The study, published in the Journal of Cognition and Development, shows a statistically significant relationship between language development and media consumption, but not only in the way this is usually talked about.
The amount of time children spend on digital media has a significant impact – on their vocabulary as well as on their grammar skills. However, it matters greatly whether the children look at programmes in Swedish, especially when it comes to grammatical development. In terms of vocabulary, the quality of the programme and the language used seem to be even more important than the amount of screen time. Children who watch a lot of English content simply tend to have poorer language development in Swedish.
“So the time spent watching, together with the quality of the programme and whether the programme is in Swedish, matters,” Anett Sundqvist concludes.
The English language content was of consistently poorer educational quality, which may be an explanation for the result. She thinks another explanation could be that Swedish parents to a lesser extent sit with and talk to their child about the content when this is in English.
Start by creating a digital media plan is Anett Sundqvist's advice. Fotograf: Jonas RoslundThe Swedish context
This is the first study to examine the relationship between vocabulary, grammar and the quality and language of the programmes in a Swedish context. Since children in Sweden watch large amounts of content in English, it’s particularly important to carry out studies here, according to Anett Sundqvist.
The differences between the children in the study were still in most cases within what is normal, which was probably due to the fact that the majority had well-educated parents. Anett Sundqvist believes that a sample that better reflects the Swedish population would probably yield much larger differences. But the study still shows how media habits can affect children’s chances when they start school.
“What you learn at preschool age, you bring with you when you start school. It’s this ability that makes it a little easier to learn to read and understand texts,” says Anett Sundqvist.
Advice for parents
She has some advice for parents of young children. Start by creating a digital media plan for the family to decide how you want to use digital media. Then actively choose what the child should watch and make sure to sit with and talk to the child about the content. Young children especially find it difficult to make the connection between reality and what they see on the screen. And if you want to reduce screen time, come up with a plan for what you can do together instead.
An additional tip Anett Sundqvist usually gives parents is to say out loud what they are using their mobile phone for - for example, checking the bus schedule. Not only does this promote interaction with the child, it also makes them aware of their own function as a role model.
“If you say for the seventh time during dinner that you’re just quickly going to check Facebook, this could be a wake-up call,” says Anett Sundqvist.
70 per cent use mobile phones
80 per cent play digital games
70 per cent watch TV daily
30 per cent watch YouTube
20 per cent daily play games on a tablet.
