How health visitors can address the lack of national guidance on screen time for preschool children

The growing integration of digital technology into family life has increased screen exposure among preschool children, with emerging evidence suggesting that higher levels of screen use may be associated with an increased risk of developmental delay in areas such as language, social interaction and emotional regulation. Health visitors, as specialist community public health nurses, are ideally positioned to support families with preventive guidance; however, national policy direction remains limited. This article synthesises a policy analysis of the Healthy Child Wales programme, a review of the literature on screen time and early childhood development, and a practice-based project proposal. Policy appraisal was undertaken using the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy framework. It identified a lack of explicit screen-time guidance within the Healthy Child Wales programme, contributing to inconsistent professional messaging and reduced practitioner confidence. The literature suggests that the developmental impact of screen use is influenced not only by duration, but also by the content, context of use and degree of parental mediation. Drawing on these findings, a feasible practice-based intervention is proposed to strengthen consistency and confidence in health visitor-led digital wellbeing guidance.