Robin thought she was “being Super Mom” as she made nice dinners and tidied her midwestern U.S. home, with her toddler son quietly sitting nearby watching made-for-babies TV. She didn’t know that by letting him watch so often, he was developing the newly described condition termed “Virtual Autism.”
Took a While to Realize
For weeks, Robin rationalized the changes she saw, but finally had to admit something was wrong. Her formerly happy, lively 14-month-old had stopped having eye contact, no longer said words, and began to display hand-flapping, spinning and other autistic-like symptoms.
“The big one was,” she recalls, “he had stopped answering to his name.”
As she searched her mind, it dawned on her that he was a bit more sociable and “himself” on days the TV was off. She thought about how much he’d been watching the online baby show, CoComelon. He started in the COVID lockdown and it became a habit over the months. He typically watched about two hours a day.
Going to the computer, she searched the words “screentime,” “toddlers”, and “autism.” That’s when she found The Durable Human post on Virtual Autism.
“The next day,” she recalls, “we stopped screentime.”
Origins of Virtual Autism
The Romanian clinical psychologist Marius Zamfir first named the condition that can emerge among toddlers who watch multiple hours of screen media on a daily basis. As Zamfir has stated, “I used the word ‘virtual’ in the naming because there is a direct causal link between excessive consumption (over 4-5 hours per day) of virtual environment (smartphone, tablet, TV, laptop, etc.) and ASD-specific behaviors [among children 0 to 3 years].”
Zamfir also pioneered the treatment: to stop the child’s exposure to all screens and greatly increase interaction with parents and other caring people. The intervention includes much more face-to-face and eye contact, talking, and physical play with real toys and children—indoors and out.
As Zamfir explains, “The younger the age in problem identification, the faster the problems go away.”
Pediatricians and psychologists from France, the U.S., Israel, Iran, and Thailand now study and treat children with the screen-induced syndrome and are cited on the website autismandscreens.org.
The World Health Organization advises there should be no screen media for children under two years old due to their extremely rapid and sensitive brain development, as well as need for physical activity and affection.
Screentime Stopped, Skill-building Started
Robin and her son’s pediatrician agreed that removing screens couldn’t hurt. They saw improvement almost immediately.
In just the first week, Robin says, “his waving came back within a few days…all of a sudden he was very clingy with me, which was out of the norm and very reassuring to me and eye contact wasn’t where it should be, but it was there—definitely.”
After that, she began to work with her son to improve every developmental skill that was absent or lacking when he took the M-CHAT toddler screening questionnaire for autism spectrum disorder.
A Long Path Back
Recovery took months. “The screen removal was the easy part,” she told The Durable Human in an interview. “The hard part was the constant high-quality social interaction.”
Robin never gave up. “Since the progress started so rapidly, it was kind of instant gratification for me. It was very inspiring. And I also had this idea that this is my one shot. I don’t have another option.”
She worried her son needed extra help regaining his speech. “His receptive language was just nothing and he didn’t say anything. So even though he really wanted to be social, he could not talk or comprehend.”
After five months of speech therapy, Robin proudly reports, “He graduated! The communicative language words he speaks is within the threshold of normal for a two-year-old and his receptive language is considered advanced.”
The Miracle of No Screentime
The little boy’s doctors are astounded at his progress, as is Robin herself: “A miracle. it’s like I saw a miracle.”
She calls it “the greatest blessing in disguise. I mean, with screens just not being an option, it really frees you from that crutch.”
She and her son now are both more “present,” in her word. “The screens almost made it feel like, instead of living and enjoying the day, it felt like I was just getting through the day. Like this was a balm or a drug or a time-eater, just to whittle away the day. I feel so empowered now that I’ve done it without screens and I know I can do it. I feel like endless possibilities.”
A Warning about Early and Often Screentime
Robin, who had been following information about babies, toddlers and screens that is shared on The Durable Human blog and YouTube Channel, volunteered to tell her story because she wants to give the world this message:
“Families need to know that, even though heavy screen use is normalized in our society, that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Lead paint was once called safe, asbestos was called safe, cars didn’t have seat belts—and that doesn’t mean it was okay.
This heavy screen use in society is fairly recent. Its effects on the human mind—on our children—hasn’t really been fully realized yet. And just because you aren’t being warned explicitly at every doctor’s appointment, or by parents that came before you, or other parents—that doesn’t mean the danger isn’t there.”
“Wrong to Keep it to Myself”
Robin’s second child was expected days after she spoke with The Durable Human. Having her hands fuller won’t stop her from spreading the word about the effects of early and often screen viewing.
“I don’t feel that I would be being a good human being to keep this to myself. That’s why I agreed to this interview and any subsequent anything. It would be wrong to keep this to myself.”
Here’s a 49-second trailer from the interview:
About the author: Jenifer Joy Madden is a certified Digital Wellness educator, health journalist, and founder of DurableHuman.com and Durable U online parent education. She wrote How To Be a Durable Human: Revive and Thrive in the Digital Age Through the Power of Self-Design and is the mother of three grownup practicing durable humans.
Hi. My daughter had even more than 8 hrs a day screen time or so since 5 month to till 3 years. I stopped screen time from 3 .now she is 3 years old n 8 month. Now she scripts whatever she watch TV shows so far, eye contact from 0 to 45 percent, sometimes she requests needs in 1 or 2 words, cry as tantrum If not getting anything, she laughs sometimes no reason. After no screen, she develops little eye contact, no toe walking as 10 percent only, no touching sensory, scripting to self talk. Plz advise anyone suffers from virtual autism has scripting and laughing issues?
Self laughing overcome? & what u did for this ?
My boy 2.5 yrs old having same issue.
Pls update.
He has tv explore above to 6 hours per day
Hello I’m very confused, so apparently my son has been showing sign of virtual autism but also is randomly laughing and repeating words, and shaking his head a lot. He also has very bad temper. Which I’m really scared…
Hi, Jane – I see that you are scared, but you have discovered that his behavior may be screen-related, so that’s a great start toward his recovery. Please read everything on this post and the other Virtual Autism posts on the site and watch the videos on the Durable Human YouTube Channel, especially the interviews with Robin and Lori Frome. Please pace yourself because his recovery will take time. Have you stopped his exposure to all screens and electronic toys? The other part of the equation is to talk and play with him, involve him in your daily routines, make sure he gets outdoors as often as you can take him, and invite your family members and other people involved with you son’s care to interact and have fun and talk to him as much as they can. It’s nice that summer is almost here so you spend more time outdoors. Good luck with everything and write back if you have questions.
Hello everyone,
I have been SO busy with my 1 and 3 year old lately that I have not been able to respond to comments or emails. My husband has also been working a lot of nights and weekends.
I wanted to come here and say as a blanket statement, I have read all the comments and emails sent to me, and anyone that that has sent me a specific concern, I want to say here that nothing I have seen in any comment or email has been out of the ordinary…anyone who has contacted me in the last 3 months and I haven’t gotten back to you, every email and comment I’ve recieved, the child sounds to be doing exactly where we would want to see them for where they are in the screen removal protocol.
My 3 year old starts preschool next month, hopefully I can catch up in correspondence then! Thanks for your patience!
Robin
Hello, so apparently my brother is turning 3 in 3 months and we had just found out he has virtual autism at the end of last month. We started to take him to daycare to interact with other children and going to try and support him at home. However we haven’t started therapy yet. Should I consider it? When should this last?We went to the doctor last week and they said they saw a few red flags but nothing else. He used to have over 3 hours of screen time at least and now I’ve noticed that it’s my fault for not caring enough. The moment we reduced screen time he started to sleep better and making more eye contact then usual. But I’m worried he won’t be cured in time before his birthday. And if he turns 3, would it be too late for him to recover? Hopefully not because I’m bawling tears right now.
Hello, Martha! You are clearly quite worried about your son, but take heart! You already can see how he has changed since removing screens in terms of better sleep and eye contact, and he will continue to do so with your careful attention. It took a while for him to develop his behavior related to screen viewing, so it will take time for him to unwind from that exposure. That means he will still be recovering when he reaches his 3rd birthday. Please know that his brain is extremely responsive to his environment at that age and well beyond, so he will get better and better. Experts who have contributed to posts here on virtual autism say that therapy can be very helpful for developing social and language skills. But they also say that your daily back-and-forth in-person loving interaction also makes an incredible difference. In other words, the talking, playing indoors and out, reading books every day, involving him in routines like cooking, laundry, etc., are just as important as turning off all screens in the household and removing electronic toys. Having him in daycare definitely will also help him learn to socialize, as long as it is a screen-free program. Also – try to go easier on yourself. It sounds like you think it’s your fault, but really all this evidence about how damaging screen exposure is for babies and toddlers is just coming out. I hope after reading this you feel better to know you are well on your way in the right direction!
Thank you so so much for the advice and help! This really brought so much relief to me and my mother who is also worried! However why does he continue to repeat the things he saw in tv? Even though we eliminated his screen time completely for over 2 weeks now?
Hi, Martha –
From what you’ve shared, it sounds like your son has been watching TV for a while. That means it will take a while for his brain to acquire other learnings and gradually replace the memories of the shows he watched. Typically, it will take about as long to unwind problems caused by screens as it took for them to appear. (In other words, if he has watched a lot for 8 months, it will take at least 8 months for the screen-induced behavior to go away). Try not to worry. Keep talking to and playing with him and soon he’ll be repeating your words, and probably your mom’s words, too. As Robin says, please be patient – it will be worth it!
Does toe walking and babbling the same thing over and over again also a symptom?? He also sings songs he remembers from his electronic devices.
Toe walking is an autistic-like mannerism that research shows can be screen-induced. As Robin attests, it usually will go away when all screens are removed from his life and his social interaction is greatly increased. Language learning is usually the last thing to return. So again – be patient and keep talking and describing everything! As for the songs, it may be helpful for you to sing him new songs that he will learn, just as he did those he saw on TV.