To wonder why screens aren’t investigated as a cause of childhood behaviour issues?

I know an anecdote doesn't make data but my 5 year old who is being assessed for autism has had less than 50 hours of screen time outside of school/childminder in his life. And any screen time is always a specific video or educational game curated by myself.
ND conditions are not the same as delays or behavioural issues although admittedly if you can mask well then you are less likely to get diagnosed.

YANBU - I used to work in Health Visiting and 99% of the kids I used to see with behaviour concerns or speech delays were on screens for hours a day.

With our support the ones who cut down the screen time saw improvements and the ones who said "it's too hard, they just cry"... Well, their kids continued to not listen to them, have a million tantrums a day and grunt at them rather than speak. Was pretty obvious to me what was causing the problem but parents just couldn't be bothered to deal with it. One mum even told me she was "too busy" to put in place the simple speech development methods (literally basic stuff like speaking face to face, naming objects, trying not to respond to non verbal communication and encourage speech instead). I mean, wtf - why did you even bother to have your kid?? It was easier for her to let the iPad "teach" her daughter to speak (yet ignoring the fact it clearly wasn't)

And this was busy cleaning and stuff in the house, not working 50hrs a week before anyone gives that excuse!

YANBU. Too many people these days say their child has autism and/or ADHD and therefore lots of screen time is necessary as it helps keep them calm/regulated or whatever, but they seem to have completely overlooked the very real possibility that having far too much screen time as a replacement for human interaction from a very early stage of their mental and social development might be the reason they have ended up presenting as ADHD and/or ASD, not the solution to managing it.

Thank you, that's kind!

It's an interesting subject - I should also perhaps say that DS is very like me, just dialled up to 11, and it was suggested that I should be assessed as well and I 'passed' the triage and am on the waiting list and this is not uncommon. Obviously as I'm in my late 40's, mobile phones and tablets weren't an issue when I was a child, instead I read a lot - and I mean a lot, enough to drive teachers to suggest I read too much.

I was on a train recently and nearly everyone in my carriage was on a screen. Fair enough, people may have work to do or want to be entertained on a long journey.

But I was also looking at people waiting on station platforms and going through several stations, I'd say 99% of the people of all ages were waiting on the platform looking down at their 'phone.

That's how extreme it is. That people can't wait for a few minutes for a train without being entertained (or enraged) by a screen.

And don't get me started on the bus rides I go on where a parent props up a 'phone in front of a buggy to entertain a toddler for a journey of just a few minutes.

As I said upthread, it's not just children, it's insidiously everywhere across all ages and effects emotional regulation, attention spans, mental health and wellbeing.

I don't think the screen time in itself is necessarily the biggest issue.

I have an autistic child who uses screen time to decompress after school. It helps hugely. But we also play board games, chat, go outdoors loads (bike rides, dog walks, playing with neighbours etc). He loves listening to music and audio books etc. We always have meals together as a family. At weekends we spend lots of time exploring new places (screens in the car if needed).

Another family might have less screen time but not be doing anything to help develop social skills or build resilience. I see it as a balance.

Because we all already know it's true, and nobody wants to admit it or have it confirmed.

I despair at this. Went to a really nice pub for lunch yesterday and the amount of young kids we saw that were immediately handed an iPad etc,

The Coventry Grid is helpful, but I personally don’t consider it definitive, especially for children with very complex presentations.

YANBU. In my opinion it’s pretty clear that addiction to screens causes a lot of behavioural issues (not ND, but behavioural issues, and obviously not all of them!).

They are designed to be addictive, and to keep you coming back for more. It’s hard enough for adults to control their usage. I’m glad that smartphones and tablets weren’t around when I was a child.

Look at the studies when they’ve removed smartphones from secondary age children; even the children themselves have admitted that they’ve realised what their phones do to them.

Younger children can’t regulate their emotions as well. I’ve seen lots of posts here with parents talking about their child’s behaviour when they can’t play on their games/ tablets.

My 9yo (almost 10) is apparently the only one without a phone/ tablet in his class. I don’t think it’s coincidence that his teacher said he has a much higher level of focus and ability to concentrate compared to his classmates.

I’m very glad that both the primary and secondary schools here have a smartphone ban and screens are not used in lessons apart from in IT lessons.

Yes, perhaps my use of ‘we know’ was misplaced there. I was using it colloquially, rather than scientifically. It’s a complex topic, and may even be impossible to account for all variables.

I made a decision not to give my son a screen because to me, it seemed logical that the preference would be interacting with him and letting him watch me interact with others. I can’t know this for sure, as I can’t go back in time and give him an iPad at age two to let him watch with reckless abandon, keep everything else equal, and see if he was still the same person now he is 7.

I won’t progress to be particularly scientifically minded, and I would have no idea whether it is even possible to have very high quality research in to this area that would give a definitive answer. I went on gut instinct, and to me, it was logical.

Yes OP, all behavioural issues in children are due to excessive screen time and nothing to do with overly permissive parenting, lack of boundaries, diet, exercise, not reading to kids, lower socioeconomic status, underfunded schools, childhood trauma, neurodivergence and all the many, many other factors that influence child development. Screen time is 100% the cause rather than a symptom of deeper issues is it?

As for PP saying about screens as a cause of neurodivergence… you do realise neurodivergence was around long before screens, right? I had zero screen time as a child and still ended up with moderate to severe ADHD!

May I please say that I really admire the way you’re engaging with this thread and the questions people are asking? I think this is a really interesting topic but understand it can be emotive for some

This one is always pulled out of the hat.
I'm ND, as are my DC, and they don't help us, nor are they are of benefit to other ND DC I know.

It's about the behaviours continuing past the point where they're age appropriate. But yes it's an interesting chicken and egg question isn't it?

There were other possible risk factors though correlation vs causation isn't clear for all of them - I was 35 when I had DS, I had HG during pregnancy, developed pre-eclampsia and had an induction, all associated with an increased risk of autism. Did the screen time add to that? Or was the use of screen time a reaction to having an autistic child? I would say I never planned to allow as much screen time as I did, it was less than many children I see, and at the younger ages it was used with us engaging with him and talking to him rather than just using the screen as a babysitter. I would draw funny shapes on the DipDap app, make the ball square for example, as DS would find that funny. He has always been very sociable, but largely would just info dump about his special interest to anyone who even said hello to him, much to their confusion as he often seems to start in the middle, like he has a running commentary in his head and just starts verbalising it, that's his way of communicating.

He spent a lot of time outside - we used to wear ourselves out trying to wear him out in the hope he would sleep - and a lot of time doing other non screen based activities like generally playing with Lego and building things, playing board games, being read to, having conversations with him, so I'd say overall he had a good balance of activities. His longest running special interest has been Nerf guns and he has a large collection that he's bought second hand, so we spend a fair amount of time doing the rounds of local charity shops.

I don't think it's just children.

I think it's had a significant impact on all ages and contributes to a lot of the rage/violence that has dramatically increased the last few years.

Covid definitely had an impact but I think screens/social media are having an enormous impact on everyone's mental health and wellbeing.

We know this how?

I'm being serious. We need to be careful about making assumptions here too.

This is a vast subject and it's one of those where I think we need to be asking multiple questions about social changes happening at the same time and pressures put on family.

We need to be mindful of research and what it says, and doesn't say. We have a pre deposition to seek out things that fit with our world view and assumptions rather than to look at the details of a study and the quality of a study.

Because this subject is so highly charged with moral judgement and emotion it's one that needs to be looked at very carefully.

I'm already seeing posts say 'because it's been studied' without proper references and comment on the quality of the study. We need to get better at this as a rule for all subjects. Data is not infaliable. It can be misleading and omit huge points if we are not very very careful about it.

My feeling is very much that this area is one of them and it strikes me that it contains elements of people who have already come to a conclusion before the methodology of the study has even been considered. This is deeply concerning as it means that we are at risk of any work in this area being highly vulnerable to bias.

Honestly, this has red flag bunting all over it, shouting 'hmmm we should be careful here'.

I am already seeing acquaintances saying 'ban the mobile phone' whilst demanding their child's school manages their child's behaviour with an iPad (yes for real).

If we are going to do this, it needs to be done properly. I do think it needs to be done. But I think it's at risk of being done very badly.

There are ways to differentiate e.g. trauma and autism - the Coventry grid for example.

IMO in twenty years time there will be studies which show that screen time is the cause of a lot of neurodivergent behaviour.

Interesting isn’t it that children are glued to screens 24/7 and now every other child appears to have autism/ADHD.

There will be other factors of course, but I’m not convinced there isn’t a link.

I hope that nothing I am saying reads as ‘ban all screens’
I think it’s complex. At one end of the scale you’ve got absolutely no screens whatsoever, including TV and the other end you have children who barely let go of them. That’s got to be hard to measure.
My DS does watch TV, YouTube is banned because it’s shite. We play retro video games together. We do wordle together on my phone sometimes (and the other NYT games) and occasionally he will play a reading game that school recommended two years ago so he is a bit too old for it now!

No 2 year olds needs or benefits from using a tablet.

I don’t think this is an easy thing to measure and as someone said upthread, ‘screen time’ is a nebulous definition.

A lot obviously does depend on what they’re using screens for, age of use and amount. But let’s not forget, that even if what’s on the screen isn’t detrimental in anyway, what the screen is replacing (I.e. social interaction, speech etc) is detrimental