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.

A social worker told me recently that the average age a child gets given their own device with internet access is now 3. I’m quite confident (as I’m sure many other teachers are) that I could identify which children in a primary classroom have lots of screen time and which ones do not. I’m not making any judgements as I do not have my own children.

The curriculum is pushing more and more screen use onto us. The kids will do any tedious crap if you put it on a screen, it’s both frightening and fascinating. I resist using screens in class unless for something specific like teaching coding. We have access to ‘educational’ games but most children like them because they can get hit buttons randomly, and even if they don’t know the answers, will eventually get a little game reward. There’s very few ‘educational games’ with any depth, accountability, or real merit to them.

Children regularly ask me if they can look up how to do/create something rather than use their imagination or problem solving. For example, a ‘how to draw’ on YouTube, instead of just having a go and enjoying the process. Many children see others’ ideas and creations as more worthy than their own efforts.

I’m now starting to encounter children who have absolutely zero interest in any activity except for scrolling - they don’t want to be in the classroom, but they also don’t want to be in the playground or the gym hall either. More and more children don’t know how to do jigsaw puzzles, fold and cut paper, play card games, colour neatly, etc. Many don’t enjoy mindful, time consuming crafts like making friendship bracelets.

And that’s ignoring all the issues we have to deal with in PRIMARY school with children bullying each other on social media (for over 13s) and accessing damaging material.

I think we have to be careful what we mean by screens and screen time as people use screens in very different ways.

I am actually interested in the impact of 'screens' on language acquisition. I'm actually more interested on whether parents being on thier phones a lot has an impact.

I am also interested in the teen years where a lot of games and social media are developed around dopamine hits and the impact on attention spans. I work in a secondary where there were always children with adhd but there has bee n a marked increase in attention deficit type behavior

They have. Isn't that why Australia voted to ban social media for under 16s.

Link to this research?

No, he showed signs of sensory issues pretty much from birth, and still has the same issues now around washing and changing clothes. He was a very quiet baby, but would absolutely scream the place down when bathed or having his clothes/nappy changed and this never stopped, he was never happy about those things - then he got to an age when we couldn't make him anymore so he pretty much doesn't unless we can persuade him to go swimming.

Many of the behaviours only become relevant in hindsight, when they've carried on past the point of being age appropriate, so it can be difficult to identify - in a two year old what is a normal tantrum and what is a meltdown? He has always slept at least two hours less than the amount of time indicated for his age, he met all his milestones, but always at the later end of the given timescale, except for using two word sentences which he was late to do, yet his vocabulary was larger than expected for his age.

I was always worried about how he was doing socially and he was always far more active than other children I saw, other parents would comment at toddler group about how I never sat down, but I had to continuously watch him and hover as he would hit other children. He was the only child doing laps of the hall when the others were sat down to have a drink and a biscuit and sing songs - all pre-tablet. Twice I had random strangers ask me if he was autistic.

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

I’m really not saying this to be contrary, but my 2 (who are NT) were nightmare babies - slept very little, both had colic and seemed just extremely unhappy compared to other people’s babies. They also exhibited sensory behaviour - DD would only settle if I held facing away from you and being bounced in a certain rhythm, she also couldn’t tolerate certain sounds etc and same sort of things for DS. If they’d been diagnosed autistic I would’ve said the signs were apparent from birth but they’re not - so could it be confirmation bias?

As his screen use started very young it must also be hard to separate the behaviours out?

Yes it could be one or both of them and it would be interesting to see if the precise cause of damage has been located

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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,

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

Yes I agree. It’s really appreciated as this is one of those emotive topics where a rational discussion with self awareness is hard to have.

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.