An Honest Screen Time Take: From People Who Make Toddler Content
We make music videos for toddlers. Our whole thing is your kid watching a screen. So you'd expect this post to tell you that screens are fine and ours especially.
It's not going to do that.
The uncomfortable part first
Researchers have known for two decades that very young children learn less from a screen than from the identical experience with a live person. It's called the video deficit, and it's one of the most replicated findings in early childhood research (Anderson & Pempek, 2005; Barr, 2013). A toddler shown how to do something by a person on video learns it slower (sometimes not at all) compared to the same demonstration from a person in the room. Under about 30 months, the gap is biggest; it shrinks as kids get older, but it's real.
Why?
A screen can't respond. It doesn't follow your kid's gaze, doesn't react when they point, and doesn't adjust when they're confused. Toddler brains are wired to learn from back-and-forth, and a video, any video, including ours, is one-way.
So no, a toddler alone in front of a video, even a lovingly made educational one, is not getting what the thumbnail promises. If a kids' channel tells you otherwise, they haven't read the research or are hoping you haven't.
The part that changes everything
The video deficit shrinks when a grown-up joins in — that's co-viewing. Here's what the same body of research found next: the gap closes when a grown-up joins in.
When parents watch with their toddler — pointing at things, naming them, singing along, asking "where's the cow?" — kids attend more, respond more, and learn measurably more from the exact same video (Barr et al., 2008; and a 2020 experiment found toddlers who watched with an engaged parent significantly out-learned those whose parent sat silently beside them). Researchers call it joint media engagement. You'd call it watching TV with your kid.
Three more findings that surprised us:
The screen was never the problem. In one of the field's most elegant experiments, toddlers were taught new words by a live person, by a person over video chat, or by a prerecorded video. They learned from the live person and from the video chat. Not from the recording (Roseberry, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2014, Child Development). Same screen, same pixels; the only difference was whether the person on it could respond. Which means two things: the video deficit is really a responsiveness deficit — and video calls with Grandma and Grandpa aren't "screen time" in the worrying sense at all. A grandparent who answers back is an interaction, not a broadcast.
Repetition helps screens specifically. The video deficit shrinks and in some studies disappears when toddlers watch the same content repeatedly (Barr et al., 2007). Your kid rewatching one video twenty times is a better learning setup than twenty different videos once. (This shocked exactly zero toddlers. More on why repetition helps toddlers learn words.)
Music videos have a built-in advantage but only if someone sings. A song invites participation in a way a narrated cartoon doesn't. A toddler singing along isn't passively receiving; they're producing language. The video becomes a duet partner. A screen can't do back-and-forth, but a song gives you the script for it. (And no, you don't need a good singing voice for that part — see what research says about parents' singing voices.)
So here's our actual advice, conflicts of interest and all
Watch with them when you can. Not every minute of every viewing. Obviously, real life exists and you can't be with them 24/7. But some genuinely joined-in viewings, singing along and pointing at things, do more than many solo ones.
Let them rewatch. The loop is on their side.
Use videos as a doorway, not a destination. The best thing our videos can do is give you material for the rest of the day. The song in the car, "what does the bird eat?" at the park. When the song leaves the screen, the screen did its job.
Don't use us as background. A video playing to an empty-ish room while your toddler plays isn't a little bit good, it's mostly noise. Researchers who measured it found background TV lowered both the amount and the quality of parent-child talk in the room (Kirkorian, Pempek et al., 2009) and that talk is exactly what builds language. Off is better than ambient.
And sometimes, the honest best answer is: not now. Under 18 months or so, the research says screens have very little to offer that you don't do better yourself just by singing off-key in the kitchen. Our albums work without any screen at all and that's not an accident.
Why we're telling you this
Because you were going to find out anyway, and because we think a kids' brand you can trust about the limits of its own product is worth more than one that can't be. We make our videos to be sung with, rewatched, and taken off-screen into real life because that's the version of screen time the research actually supports.
Quick answers
Is YouTube bad for toddlers?
It depends far more on how than how much. Solo, passive viewing offers toddlers little. Young children learn less from screens than from live interaction (the "video deficit"). Watching together, singing along, and rewatching favorites changes the equation substantially.
Do toddlers learn from educational videos?
On their own, much less than parents hope, especially under 30 months. With an engaged adult co-viewing, learning improves measurably.
What is co-viewing?
Watching with your child and interacting. Naming, pointing, singing, asking questions. Research shows it significantly increases what toddlers take away from a video.
Does video chatting count as screen time?
Not in the way parents usually worry about. Research shows toddlers learn new words over video chat nearly as well as in person because the person on screen responds to them. It's the responsiveness, not the screen, that matters.
Is it bad that my toddler rewatches the same video?
No, repeated viewing of the same content actually reduces the learning gap screens create. Rewatching is one of the most screen-friendly habits a toddler has.
También en español → ¿Es malo YouTube para niños pequeños?
Sources
- Roseberry, S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2014). "Skype Me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language." Child Development, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
- Madigan, S., et al. (2022). Screen exposure and early childhood cognition — a review. Frontiers in Psychology, frontiersin.org.
- Joint media engagement and toddler learning from video (2020). Frontiers in Psychology, frontiersin.org.
- Barr, R. "Infants, Toddlers and Learning from Screen Media." Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, child-encyclopedia.com.
Zaydio makes music for kids ages 2–8, written by composer Bradley Schachter, a musician with over 45 years of playing experience — real songs built to be sung together, not just watched. Stream our albums on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, or watch on YouTube. Learn more on our For Families page.