Virtual autism is caused due to prolonged exposure of children to screens like phones, tablets, television, computers, and laptops.
Virtual autism is a phrase formulated in 2018 by Marius Teodor Zamfir, a Romanian psychologist. He found that children, 0-3 years, who stared at screens for over four hours a day, had “sensory-motor and socio-affective deprivation”.
Virtual autism is a condition when young children have prolonged and excessive exposure to screens. With proper support and counselling, virtual autism can be cured.
“Most of the time, the child receives only certain sensations (visual and / or auditory) from a virtual environment, and can not correlate these visual and auditory sensations with other types of sensations: vestibular, tactile, odor, tasteless, unable to develop accordingly.
The behaviors that are attributable to both autism and vision problems can include lack of eye contact, staring at spinning objects or light, fleeting peripheral glances, side viewing, and difficulty attending visually. Autistic people may also have problems coordinating their central and peripheral vision.
Incorporate more movement, exercise and free play. While stress and screen time break down brain connectivity, exercise does the reverse — it builds connections and actually makes the brain bigger!
A recent study, “Association Between Screen Time Exposure in Children at 1 Year of Age and Autism Spectrum Disorder at 3 Years of Age,” showed that longer durations of screen time among 1-year-old boys was “significantly associated” with autism spectrum disorder at 3 years old.
Autism Spectrum Disorders are not caused by emotional deprivation or the way a person has been brought up. Theories such as the "refrigerator mother" have long been discredited.
New research suggests that substantially reducing the amount of time that young kids with autism spend watching screens could lead to fewer symptoms of the developmental disorder.
Autism doesn't get worse with age, but certain symptoms can become more pronounced and problematic as the child grows older and is more challenged.
While autism is typically not diagnosed before the age of 2 (and often much later), it can sometimes be detected earlier. A 2022 study found that a routine second-trimester ultrasound could detect early signs of autism during pregnancy,19 including anomalies in the heart, head, and kidneys.
Emily: Individuals with autism are often very detail-oriented. Thus, they may notice details in the environment that we do not, and may get fixated on those details (thus, blocking all else out of their attention span and appearing to be “spaced out”).
Autistic people have decreased amounts of brain tissue in parts of the cerebellum, the brain structure at the base of the skull, according to a meta-analysis of 17 imaging studies5.
In the autistic brain, the brain reduced connectivity, known as hypoconnectivity, allows weakly connected regions to drift apart, with sulci forming between them.” Research has shown the deeper theses sulcal pits are, the more language production is affected.
Does The Father Or Mother Carry The Autism Gene? Autism was always thought to have a maternal inheritance component, however, research suggests that the rarer variants associated with the disorder are usually inherited from the father.
There are many different factors that have been identified that may make a child more likely to have ASD, including environmental, biologic, and genetic factors.
There are other brain disorders that mimic autism symptoms, like ADHD and anxiety disorders, including selective mutism. Autism can be misdiagnosed as another disorder with some shared symptoms.
Many parents reported addictive behaviors in their children, followed by tantrums when they attempted to wean them off the cartoon. Others attributed speech delays, missed milestones and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and autism, to CoComelon.
Not all children with autism show all the signs. Many children who don't have autism show a few. That's why professional evaluation is crucial.
Epsom Salt Baths – Epsom salts are calming to the nervous system. If baths can't be taken daily or when a child is in crisis, try foot baths. They can often soak their feet while watching TV, coloring, etc. Essential Oils – Certain essential oils such as lavender have a calming effect on the nervous system.
During adolescence, the cortex undergoes critical development. Screen time may affect its growth. A study called Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) revealed that some kids who use screens more than seven hours a day had a thinner cortex than those who used screens less.
Studies show that kids who watch too much TV are more likely to be overweight — and, depending on the content of what they see, more aggressive. Too much media use is also linked to poor grades, sleep problems, and behavior problems.