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.

My kids tablets aren't allowed out of the house and they don't use my phone at all. I've never understood the need for kids to be on tablets in the car, in restaurants, out shopping or anywhere else. Surely being out in the world is when kids learn most about social skills and etiquette. So I don't think yabu at all op.

YADNBU OP but I think we are fucked because we are literally brain washing this generation and changing the way their brains are wired because it's easier than the very difficult job of parenting.

I often think that screens are made by computer programmers who are massively over-representative of people with autism: so why is it a remote surprise that screen use then teaches children those behaviours and thought processes?

My friend had her son assessed privately recently, they had a one hour zoom meeting with her and a one hour zoom meeting with her son and then he was diagnosed. It's not always as thorough as you say.

DS showed sensory issues pretty much from birth that haven't changed in going on for 12 years now.

I do worry about his screen time, as many of his special interests involve screens (Minecraft, Geometry Dash), but screens do seem to help him regulate and our priority has been, after a year of EBSA and a lot of work on our part to get him back into school, to keep things low demand at home so he can cope with school - thankfully he's in specialist provision and they do work on independent living skills etc.

When did he start using screens can I ask? This isn’t so I can jump on you, I appreciate your contribution to the thread, but I would be really interested to know the role screens have played in his life - aka when various screens were introduced, how much time he spent on them, what he was watching/playing etc

I mean, mine is non-verbal, incontinent and sleeps about 3 hours a night. I’m pretty sure that isn’t from screens…..

We don’t use screens in the car apart from very long journeys over 2h, and we never use them if we are out, but at home it’s an important part of decompressing and regulating, and we use them accordingly.

To me, a child presenting with sensory issues from birth and still showing those issues 12 years later is a clear cut sign of ND - present from birth.

I do not know what it’s like to have an ND child but what you’ve said and the path you have chosen does make sense. Just proves how complex it all is.

Correlation isn't causation, though.

Yes, I’d be pretty sure that wasn’t from too much screen use either!
I think this thread is about NT children displaying ND traits that could be caused by too much screen time. Definitely not that screen time causes ND

And there is an emerging ‘whole industry’ around diagnosis, testing, tutoring…

Before I had any child diagnosed I would want a full process.

This was always a team of professionals, teacher, SENCo, educational psychologist, physiotherapist, occupational health, GP, hospital doctor, parents and family members. The diagnosis was only made after a period of time ( at least 6 months, often longer) , with frequent observations at school, in the home, at the hospital. Long, detailed reports.
The diagnosis happened in a meeting at the Child Development Centre, with all of these people present, where reports were discussed and analysed.

Parents played a key part and, in this case, were upset when the diagnosis was actually made. They required support too.

Screen time has been proved to cause these issues.

I'm going to throw a curve ball into this.

I do think that screen time is a problem and a link between behavioural issues and screen use is overdue. I don't think it will happen because there's too much money invested in screens.

But my point is how do you measure poor behaviour and is all this screen time equal?

By us all screen time equal, I think there's a world of difference between watching endless YouTube videos, watching educational kids programmes, playing Fortnite at an inappropriate age, playing a slow paced game like Animal Crossing, playing a (deliberately) highly addictive phone game and using an app like Duolingo.

I do think what feedback you get from the screen matters in this sense. Is the scene just about dopamine hits? Is it about social interaction (both positive and negative)? Does it contain elements of educational value?

I don't think you can put 'screentime' into the same into the same box for this reason. There's pluses and minuses here we should be taking into consideration in any study we make on this, otherwise it devalues any potential findings and may over look important findings (either to smear potentially exceptionally useful tools or to underestimate potential harms from certain forms of screen interactions).

'Screen time' is a rather nebulous description really.

Wait…you asked why no-one is looking into this but you say its ‘proven’?

I'm not saying 'excessive' screen use (however you define that) isn't harmful, but no study is ever going to be able to prove that screens cause anything poor behaviour.

For starters it's not even clear if behaviour is actually getting 'worse' - that's extremely subjective and difficult to measure.

After all that, even so called 'common sense' isn't particularly reliable. One of my grandmas was told (by a doctor) to take up smoking in pregnancy because common sense at the time was that smoking tended to equal a smaller baby and a smaller baby tended to mean an easier delivery! There have been all sorts of 'common sense' parenting techniques that seem extremely harmful by modern standards.

Absolutely. This is why we're waiting on the ridiculously long waiting list for our daughter, I just would not be happy with my child being diagnosed over a zoom meeting.

I do think with a lot of these private companies you're basically paying for a diagnosis.

Hmmm. Causation isn't correlation. You are missing a few big points here. What is in that's CAUSING the problem.?

Is it literally the screen or is it a type of thing on the screen.... ?

Also, is the screen time replacing other social interactions or is it accompanying it?

Families have more spare time than previously. Is it a decline in interaction with wider local communities and spending more time at home? Or is it the screen and the use of the screen as a parenting tool?

We should be asking wider questions about behaviour patterns and changes along with this.

By that logic, you could ring fence usage in certain ways and also ensure quality time doing those things the child 'is missing out' on...

...this is why it's important to understand what's going on.

Could we say that children being more in childcare, and having less one to one time might also be a factor? There are a great many variables here...

No, I asked why, given it’s been proven, people disregard it as a possible cause of dysregulated behaviour on here and the answer instead is always an autism assessment.

There are multiple threads running at the moment with children with behavioural issues who had huge amounts of screen time/don’t want to do anything but game.

Ah OK. Gotcha. My bad.

No, that’s been extensively studied as well.

Very short version -

We got him a tablet for Christmas when he was around two years and eight months old. Use of that was intermittent and with a parent - cbeebies apps like DipDap, mostly at least vaguely educational stuff. We'd also use it on long car journeys, DH's parents live 4-5 hours away so it would tend to be on visits to them, DS was very, very active, always wanted to be moving so a car journey that long, even with breaks was difficult.

But overall he would play on it a lot for a week then not touch it again for ages. He was massively into Thomas at the time so most screen time was watching Thomas on the tv and recreating bits with the toys (and lining up all the toy trains). When he moved on from Thomas he was into Lego Ninjago, so similar, would watch the tv show and play with the Lego. DS, DH and I would play the Lego videogames together on co-op. He was still very active and spent a lot of time out doors and in playgrounds.

That probably takes us up to reception age/year 1.

Developed an interest in retro gaming, mainly Nintendo and Mario.

Year 4 is when things went downhill, stopped being able to cope with school, pretty much didn't go for a year, went through a patch of regular violent meltdowns, as in multiple times a day. This reduced as pressure to attend school eased off and alternative provision was looked for. DS started to want to go out less - really didn't want to see or be seen by children from his school.

Really got into Minecraft, screen time went up. I think he was using it to regulate as he found the meltdowns and hurting us distressing. It proved to be a useful hook to get him back into school in a small unit for children with additional needs within a mainstream school, though he is very scathing of Education Edition! At this point his special interest was redstone in Minecraft - building machines in game essentially, which at least has some educational value in problem solving and design.

Now has a diagnosis or ASD, in a specialist Autism Base, mostly attends. At home he spends too much time playing Minecraft and Geometry Dash, but it seems to keep him regulated and able to mostly attend school. I get him out of the house when I can persuade him to come out with me on weekends. He has no local friends which makes things difficult for socialising with his peers, and wouldn't be able to use public transport on his own.

Thank you for sharing this. So the gaming predates when his issues starting? If you don’t mind me asking how can you be so certain the screen time didn’t play a part in his difficulties?