Conversations with adults help children develop better language skills while watching TV has the opposite effect according to a recent study.

Results of a cross-sectional study of 275 families of children aged 2 to 48 months showed that children with high language scores engaged in a lot of conversation with adults. Each hour of daily television viewing was associated with a 2.68 decrease in the language score.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for babies under 2 years of age because the opportunities for adult-child interactions are limited.

Parents can provide speech opportunities to their children by talking to them, telling them stories and reading books, but it is equally important to engage their children in two-sided conversations. More conversations can mean more opportunities for mistakes and corrections, which help children practice newly-acquired language skills.

The results of this study provide evidence that adult-child conversations are vital to child language development