Most children in England (85 per cent) were found to use an electronic device at least once a week, and 39 per cent on a daily basis, it said.
Moderate use of tablets and smartphones of around one to three times a month was found to be the most beneficial for children's early literacy development.
Reading to children three to seven days a week was also ‘strongly associated’ with children’s emergent literacy, and the number of children’s books at home was ‘a significant predictor’ of most cognitive and social -emotional outcomes.
The findings come from the International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS) - commonly referred to in the early years sector as ‘baby PISA’ *- which compares the social-emotional and cognitive development of five-year-olds in England, Estonia and the United States.
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