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

[Peony1897]

We now know that screens, and in particular tablets, have really horrific effects on young children and their emotional/social development - in particular speech, regulating anger, sensory issues and how they interact with their peers.

So why is it whenever we see a thread where a small child has some or all of the above issues, and the OP clearly mentions tablet use or ‘all they are interested in is screens’, the answer is nearly always an autism assessment rather than removal of screens?

Genuinely curious as to why such a clear risk factor is never picked up on.

YADNBU OP but prepare for a verbal kicking on this one!
The more time young children spend their faces buried in screens, the less time they’re interacting socially with others - or aren’t observing social interactions between adults.
Take restaurants as an example - toddlers/small children are learning all the time and taking cues from their parents. They watch how you speak to the person serving you, they learn from this. They learn table manners etc. how can the observe if they’re just sat watching shite on an iPad?

There are plenty of research papers and studies showing the link between screen time and poor behaviour. All listed with a quick (google).

There was also a recent study about the damage to children’s eyes.

Yet, children continue to have access to lots of screen time.

This one gives some positives but some very concerning negatives on mental health.
Poor language development, including interaction with others, has always been linked to poor behaviour, simply because the child is frustrated that they can't explain themselves. Screen time is adding to poor language development too.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10353947/

YABU - screen time has been shown to be beneficial to neurodivergent children.

I agree with you tbh but it is hard when they are everywhere. I have a 3yo and we are getting to a stage where if we bump into a nursery friend in a cafe they are often engrossed in a tablet.

We have managed to avoid a tablet/phone use except for flights, the odd long car journey and I think maybe used a phone twice when really struggling in a restaurant. Always watching something rather than playing.

I will say ours watch TV, probably more than ideal but for example today, me and the 3yo are wiped out with a sickness bug and the 1yo has chickenpox so needs must. At least with TV we are all watching the same thing, and I’m more selective of what we put on rather than just being in their own world on a tablet.

Hmm. If you start a thread saying that your young child has behaviour issues and gets lots of screen time, I reckon you'll get more posters saying you should limit screen time than telling you to get them assessed for autism.

Yes, I always see Covid lockdowns blamed for poor behaviour in school especially, but surely iPads etc have been far more damaging (and no, not because lockdown caused children to spend longer online)

And yet the number of children struggling seems to be higher than ever

££££££$$$$$ repeat. That's why.

It seems so obvious to me. The increase in screens has run parallel to an increase in the exact issues they are proven to cause, yet nobody wants to consider them the problem?

Quite conclusive link to behaviour in the conclusion of the recent study I quoted above.

Totally agree with you. Noticed a Dad and son in McDonald's this weekend. As soon as they were over the threshold, "Do you want Daddy's phone?". The kid was 2.5 or 3 years old. Zero interaction with anyone for that 20 minutes. Extrapolate that up to him starting school and he's gonna have all sorts of diagnoses. It's neglect but nobody does anything because adults are as addicted to devices as their kids are. Kind of like the babies born with a heroin addiction.

I think the tough part is that there is no definitive test for ASD or ADHD - so how is a parent to know if their child is truly neurodivergent or if screen use is impacting behaviour?
Plus, screens are addictive- if you introduce one, your child will expect it and will likely have tantrums if they don’t get it, all parents know that sometimes you’ll give in because parenting is hard.
My approach was to not introduce one in the first place. Even on long car journeys, DS needs to learn to be bored sometimes and not have something taking up his attention the whole time

It’s not screens it’s school. Kids are fine until they wind up in a lord of the flies scenario in the classrooms and then the adhd, anxiety and other mental health issues emerge.

Not true

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvglrmg08kgo.amp

Genuinely interested - do you have a citation for this?

I saw similar at DS’ football the other week. Dad was there with his young daughter who I would guess was no older than three. She was sat right next to me and spent the whole hour scrolling through TikTok. I kept glancing down (the dad didn’t notice as he was on his phone the whole time) and it looked like the algorithm was geared towards kiddie content. To me, that must mean she uses it a lot.
Sports days have been the same, toddlers being pushed up the road in their pushchairs to go and watch their siblings at sports day. Lovely sunny day, loads going on, so many of them sat in pushchairs watching tablets

It’s not ‘picked up on’ because reducing screen time is a huge inconvenience for parents and they don’t want the battles or the extra effort it takes to entertain their children without screens.

Asking for an assessment and blaming autism is easier.

Completely disagree with this

You’re absolutely right but people don’t want to hear it and get very defensive. Hence the incessant “snapshot” rebuttal every thread about seeing kids (or parents) on screens gets.

Say you manage to parent without screens babysitting young kids and you get snarky comments about “perfect parenting” or that you must be lying which suggests people do know it’s better not to use them but rather than accept there are better ways they double down with excuses.

Your kids, bring them up as you see fit, but there’s mountains of evidence of the harms so it should get harder to pretend there aren’t.

Do you have a source for this research?

I always find it interesting how research measures benefit. Sometimes it’s a self-report scale where children tick how happy they feel. Other times it’s parent report on their child’s behaviour (eg more ‘settled’ and ‘regulated’ in front of a screen).

Also, what counts as a ‘screen’. TVs are screens, and have been around for decades. Some children use mental health or mindfulness apps on their phones. Which is different to playing hours of Call of Duty. It’s an interesting area, and these definitions matter and can skew the data, you need to be really precise about what you’re looking at.

There are limited studies on long-term affects of general increase in screen use yet because three hasn’t yet been enough time to do them.

Agree with PP - people don’t want to fund or to hear this research.

Screens for children make adult lives easier . “happy mum = happy baby” how many times do we hear this on here? Drives me mad. Sometimes (in fact most of the time) what’s best for a child is inconvenient and tiresome for adults.
Obviously if the adult is on the edge of a mental breakdown where they’d be completely incapable of any care at all then it’s different, but by and large what is ‘convenient’ i.e. reduces demand for adult to provide care, is bad for the child. Children are programmed to be cared for by an adult.

Endless distraction by screens is NOT regulation. Their brains are being hijacked, and they will feel even worse when you take the screen away. Which is a sign they need LESS, not more.

Honestly, it’s like an addiction, especially for neurodivergent brains. If children’s behaviour declines when you withdraw the screen - they’re suffering from withdrawal. In the same way as an addict. You still need to keep them OFF the screens, and yes it will be painful, but it is also the right thing to do. And do it young, because the older they get the worse it becomes for them, and I do think there comes a point of no return once they are essentially totally dependent. I’ve seen it happen, all neurodivergent kids so far.

I completely agree that allowing young kids access to screens is actively causing harm.

I was at a christening of a one year old recently and before the service started, the baby was lying back in the pew, in full christening gown, glued to their Dad’s phone!

Also, it isn’t just children on screens. It’s adults on screens around children.

There was a heartbreaking post on here a while ago by a poster who witnessed a 2year old on the tube trying to get her mum’s attention, who completely ignored her, engrossed in her phone. The little girl quickly just gave up.

And children get very few social interactions when out in public these days, mostly because people hide behind their screens in cafes and on transport, but also because things are increasingly self-service.

No wonder social anxiety is on the rise!

Humans are lazy OP. They don’t want to get rid of screens. They don’t want to diet and exercise. They don’t want to go cold turkey when giving up smoking. They don’t want to stop drinking. Etc etc.

Can you stop posting utter crap?

There is a test for autism - it’s called the ADOS - look it up. It’s the gold standard of testing for autism and is scored. There also has to be an interview with parents and information gathered from other settings.