SCREEN TIME AS A DETERMINANT OF LANGUAGE SKILL ACQUISITION OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigates screen time as a determinant of language skills acquisition of preschool children in North Central, Nigeria. The study had four specific purposes, two research questions, and four hypotheses. A descriptive research design of correlation type was adopted. The population comprised all preschool children in North Central Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select a sample of 384 pupils. Three research instruments titled: Rating Scale on Preschool Screen Time (RSPST), Rating Scale on Preschool Language Skills Acquisition (RSPLSA), and Inter-rater Proforma Guide were used respectively, and the instruments’ reliability coefficients were 0.92, and 0.76respectively using Pearson product-moment correlation (PPMC). Percentage and mean were used to answer the research questions. Hypothesis one was tested using linear regressions; hypotheses two and three were tested using independent samples t-testall at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that preschool children spend a significant amount of time daily watching screens. language skills acquisition of preschool children washigh. Screen time significantly determined language skill acquisition (F(1, 382) = 222.748, p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in screen time, and Language skill acquisition based on gender. Based on the findings, it can be explicitly stated that preschool children spend their highest timedailywatching screens. Language skill acquisition of preschool children in North Central Nigeria was high. It was recommended among others that parents should supervise and restrict their children's daily screen time to one hour or less, while also establishing clear limits on the duration of their engagement with screen-based activities.

 Keywords: Language skill acquisition, Screen time, Preschool children