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With the holiday shopping season here, parents have been logging on via their smartphones and tablets to ask me whether electronic books and other apps should be purchased for their infants and toddlers to help them get smarter.

Let me swipe away some of your concerns and provide some information on this topic.

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Screen time guidelines

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The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends minimizing screen time before the age of two years, and after that age limiting all screen time for young children to no more than one to two hours a day.

Following these guidelines is easier said than done. A recent study revealed that by age two, three-quarters of all older infants and toddlers were, or are, using smart devices to play games or watch videos. Parents say they give their young children these devices to bide time while they get their own work done, keep their children calm in public places or to help them go to sleep. Despite high usage, the studies that say these devices or certain apps improve a young child’s development are few and far between.

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Recommendations from Dr. First

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¯ Ideally, I recommend keeping your young child away from these smart devices like phones and tablets. If you can’t, be sure to set limits on their use.

¯ Don’t use these devices as time-occupying pacifiers and never substitute the use of these devices for human interactive playtime. Pushing and swiping things on a screen and/or downloading electronic books with bells and whistles and lots of other noises are not a substitute for good face-to-face communication.

¯ Only let your toddler use an app if you are going to play with them as you both use it so as to promote social interactions, communication and language skills, bonding, and learning.

¯ A video visit with grandparents or other relatives is a great use of a smart device.

Hopefully, you will apply these tips and keep them in mind so that we all do a better job of helping young children’s minds develop with, or better yet — without, a smart device.

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Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.