Excessive screen time is damaging toddlers’ ability to speak, the UK government has warned as it prepares to issue advice to parents for the first time on how to manage screen use in under-fives.

Research has found that children aged two with the highest screen use – about five hours a day – could say significantly fewer words than those with screen use of about 44 minutes a day.

Screen use is now near-universal in early childhood, with 98% of two-year-olds watching screens daily, the research also found.

The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said parents and teachers had warned that “too much passive screen time can start to crowd out the talking, play and reading that are so important for children’s language and development in the early years”.

“Screens are part of family life now. The question parents are asking isn’t whether to use them, but how to use them well,” she said.

The government will issue its first guidance on screen use for under-fives in April, with tips on how it can be incorporated into activities such as talking, playing and reading with children.

A panel, led by Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, and Prof Russell Viner, former chief scientific adviser to the Department for Education, will look at the latest evidence and take input from parents to help draw up the guidance.

One of the UK’s biggest teaching unions, NASUWT, has called on the government to ban social media for under-16s over concerns about mental health and concentration, something that Phillipson previously said she was looking into.

Government-commissioned research into home learning and screen time surveyed the main caregivers of 4,758 children when they were nine months old in 2022, and at two years old between October 2023 and February 2024.

It found that at two years old, 98% of children watched TV, videos or other digital content on a screen for an average 127 minutes a day. At nine months old, this figure stood at an average of 29 minutes a day.

The World Health Organization recommends a maximum of one hour’s screen time a day for children aged two to four.

The research also found that 19% of two-year-olds played video games, and the total average time spent watching screens or playing video games was 140 minutes a day.

It concluded that higher screen time was independently associated with lower vocabulary development – children with the highest screen time could say on average 53% of the 34 test words, while those with the lowest screen time could speak 65%.

However, the research found that across the board, children could say an average of 21 words from the set of 34, which was not significantly different from earlier cohorts of two-year-olds from 2017 to 2020.

Along with language development, the research also found a quarter of all the children included in the survey scored above the threshold indicating possible behavioural or emotional problems.

Neil Leitch, the CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said guidance on screen time would be welcomed, but should also include elements such as online safety.

“While we broadly welcome plans to develop new guidance on screen time for under-fives, with technology now such an integral part of young children’s lives, it’s important that any such support on this topic sits within a much wider framework of guidance for families and educators on digital literacy and online safety,” he said.

“Recognising that digital media is more than just ‘screens’ is vital not only for supporting children’s early learning and development, but also ensuring that they have the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly digital world.”