Pediatricians are alarmed that babies and toddlers who spend hours a day on phones, tablets, and around TVs can develop behavioral changes that are similar to the symptoms of autism.
The good news: the changes often disappear when the children stop screen exposure and greatly increase face-to-face contact with caregivers and playtime with non-electronic toys.
Two doctors in France are leading an awareness campaign, which they explain in this video.
“Screen viewing several hours a day prevents the brain from developing and generates behavior problems and relationship problems,” reports Dr. Anne-Lise Ducanda, speaking also for colleague Dr. Isabelle Terrasse.
“We decided to make this video to warn parents, professionals, and public bodies of the grave dangers of all screens for children between the ages of zero to four.”
The doctors had noticed more and more toddlers with unusual changes in behavior.
Many children had stopped responding to their names and speaking words, were avoiding eye contact, and had become indifferent to the world around them.
When asking parents about media use in the household, the doctors were surprised to discover that almost all children with behavior changes had spent large amounts of time on and around screens—in some cases, ten hours a day.
But for most children whose families followed the doctors’ advice to stop the child’s screen exposure and greatly increase social interaction and play, the unusual behavior eventually disappeared.
Romanian Coins Term Virtual Autism
Romanian researchers had a similar discovery, one stating that “sensory-motor and socio-affective deprivation caused by the consumption of more than 4 hours/day of virtual environment can activate behaviours and elements similar to those found in children diagnosed with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).”
While Dr. Ducanda and colleagues use the phrase “Early and Excessive Exposure to Screens”, Romanian psychologist Marius Zamfir coined the term “Virtual Autism” to describe the screen-induced syndrome.
In Romania today, screen withdrawal is a therapeutic protocol for early ASD. There are Virtual Autism clinics and a campaign to inform parents about the problem.
Zamfir worries that children exposed to excessive screen content may lack a sense of motivation. “Children’s brains are used to getting pleasure without making any effort at all,” he says in this campaign video.
More Links Between Screen Viewing and Developmental Delays
In 2024, a study by researchers at the UC Davis Medical Center MIND Institute found that toddlers showing developmental delays, who also have autism in the family, tend to develop autism-like symptoms more often if they viewed screens as babies.
According to the study, “Children with Autism and ADHD Concerns outcomes experienced significantly more screen exposure at 18 months than children without autism or elevated symptoms of ADHD.”
In Japan, in a 2022 study of more than 84,000 Japanese babies and their mothers, “among boys, longer screen time at 1 year of age was significantly associated with autism spectrum disorder at 3 years of age.”
“With the rapid increase in device usage,” concluded the authors, “it is necessary to review the health effects of screen time on infants and to control excessive screen time.”
Screen Viewing Tied to Brain Changes
A brain study seems to bear out the behavioral indicators.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital researchers show evidence in JAMA Pediatrics that young children who spend more than two hours a day on screens have less brain white matter.
The brain’s white matter is responsible for thought processing and organization, as well as other vital functions.
“Think of white matter as cables, sort of like telephone lines that are connecting the various parts of the brain so they can talk to each other,” study author Dr. John Hutton told CNN.
“These are tracks that we know are involved with language and literacy,” he continued. “And these were the ones relatively underdeveloped in these kids with more screen time.”
47 healthy toddlers were studied. Screen exposure among them ranged from zero to about five hours a day.
In their report, the study authors did not make a connection to virtual autism nor did they specifically mention autistic-like symptoms.
Astronomical Rise in Autism Incidence
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in 1975—when VCRs first came on scene—only one in 5,000 children in the U.S. had Autism Spectrum Disorder. By 2016, as video on demand had become ubiquitous, the incidence of ASD had risen to one child in 68.
The CDC now estimates the rate is one child in every 36.
Until very recently, “AV (audio-visual) exposure in infancy has been overlooked” as a risk factor for autism, according to research ophthalmologist Karen Frankel Heffler of Drexel University College of Medicine.
As she writes in the journal Medical Hypotheses, “There has been an explosion in viewing opportunities for infants over the past 25 years, which parallels the rise in autism.”
“Attention in the vulnerable infant is drawn away from healthy social interactions toward TV, computer screens, and electronic toys,” according to Heffler.
Social Interaction Counteracts Screen Effects
In early 2020, JAMA Pediatrics published an analysis Heffler co-authored finding that babies who viewed TV and videos at age one had a slightly greater chance of displaying autistic-like symptoms than non-TV watching babies by the age of two.
Conversely, Heffler reports, “less screen exposure and more parent-child play at 12 months of age were associated with fewer ASD-like symptoms at 2 years of age.”
In 2022, Heffler’s team published a pilot intervention involving 9 children between 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 years of age who had an ASD diagnosis and watched at least 2 hours of screen media a day.
As the study shows, when social interaction and play replaced screen time, “Children’s screen viewing decreased from an average of 5.6 hours/day prior to intervention to 5 min/day during the study.
There were also significant improvements in core autism symptoms and parent stress from pre- to post-intervention.
Heffler’s team also published a case study of two toddlers with an ASD diagnosis who had “marked improvements in developmental trajectories” when screen time stopped and social time increased.
Australian research also shows babies with early signs of autism can avoid an autism diagnosis if parents learn communication skills through video feedback.
Researcher Tells Son’s Story of Virtual Autism
At the first-ever Children’s Screen Time Action Network conference, I happened to meet Dr. Heffler’s research associate, Lori Frome, M.Ed.
Frome is an autism treatment specialist who discovered, also by chance, that one of her young patient’s symptoms gradually disappeared with an end in screen viewing.
Frome then tried the same treatment on her own young son, who also had an ASD diagnosis.
Over the course of several months, instead of screen viewing, her son greatly increased his face-to-face interaction with family members as well as his independent play time.
The result: “a complete developmental trajectory change in the core deficits of ASD,” as Frome describes in this video.
In other words, her son gradually became developmentally typical for his age.
Toddlers Become Dependent on Screens
Screen media has a “very addictive power,” says Dr. Ducanda. “Little by little the child can no longer do without and demands it more and more. If the parents try and withdraw him, he can go into a real meltdown.”
Doctors Ducanda and Terrasse contend that heavy doses of screen time affect what would be, in pre-digital times, the natural wiring of a child’s brain.
Watching a ball move on a screen, for instance, does not register in a child’s mind the same way it does when physically handling a ball. Says Dr. Ducanda: “The small child’s brain cannot develop without this sense of touch.”
Dr. Andrew Doan, an ophthalmologist and neuroscientist, produced this video to explain Virtual Autism and how to limit early-life screen viewing.
In this TEDx talk, I discuss the importance of secure emotional attachments between parents and their babies and how digital device use can interfere with early relational health.
Avoiding Virtual Autism
So, what’s a parent to do?
For one thing: respect the child’s basic developmental needs.
So babies and toddlers can learn to speak, reason, and develop crucial social skills, they need face-to-face interaction with loving people and to use all their senses as often as they can.
A study from Iran proves the power of parent interaction and play.
Investigators selected 12 toddlers with autistic-like symptoms who had spent half their waking hours on screen devices. Their parents had 8 weeks of lessons in how to play with their children, with an emphasis on eye-to-eye contact, loving touch, and continuous communication.
At the end of the two-month period, the children’s screen time had shrunk to a bare minimum. They had much less ASD-like behavior and brain studies showed ASD-like readings returned to nearly normal.
The investigators say consistency is the key.
Parents need to stick with high-touch, high-talk interaction all day every day throughout the child’s waking hours and to keep screens off.
Official Recommendations Urge Screen Avoidance
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that a baby or toddler never use a screen alone. Caregivers should limit a child’s screen exposure to video calls with other loved ones.
Preschoolers should have no more than one hour of screen media per day “to allow children ample time to engage in other activities important to their health and development.”
The World Health Organization agrees that, for the sake of their health and proper brain formation, children under age one should have no exposure to screens.
Early Childhood is Unique Opportunity
When you look through Today’s lens, early childhood has become a once-in-a-lifetime pre-digital opportunity.
As I write in The Durable Human Manifesto: Practical Wisdom for Living and Parenting in the Digital Age, each child begins life as a “wild human”—as free and unplugged as any other animal.
“When toddlers range around, freely using all of their senses to examine, taste and play with whatever they choose, they are making rich and lifelong neural connections.”
Recommendations for Avoiding Virtual Autism
So young children stay on a healthy developmental track, Dr. Ducanda, Dr. Heffler, and Lori Frome have these suggestions:
- Talk, play, and read with child every day as much as possible.
- Provide materials, toys, and games that require manipulation, such as empty plastic food containers and lids, stacking cups, play dough, finger paints, and a play kitchen.
- Go outside at least once a day and make sure the child has time to play alone and with other children.
- Use screens very briefly, if at all, when with young children.
- Do not hand a phone or tablet to a baby or young child.
- Keep TV off around kids under age four, even if it’s on in the background and child doesn’t seem to be paying attention.
- Explain to family members and caregivers why these measures are essential to a child’s healthy development, durability, and well-being.
Dr. Heffler points out in her research that characteristics that may resemble those associated with autism in very young children can have a variety of causes.
If symptoms do arise, Dr. Ducanda and her colleagues recommend keeping the child away from all screens for at least a month, which will require the cooperation of every household member.
After that, she claims, ASD-like problems in many children may “miraculously disappear or diminish considerably.”
Conversely, if a child has a full, well-balanced life with very minimal screen exposure, these types of symptoms may never emerge.
Parent Resources
You can watch an interview with an American mother who came forward after discovering information on this post to tell the story of how her 14-month-old son developed and overcame screen-induced syndrome.
AutismandScreens.org has links to research, researchers, and resources.
Also see my interview with Lori Frome about detection and treatment:
Finally, in this simple online course, I teach parents why and how to create loving bonds with their babies and toddlers as well as to maximize their brain development and language learning.
Note: This post was last updated January 15, 2025
About the author:
Jenifer Joy Madden is a certified digital wellness instructor, health journalist, digital media adjunct professor, and author of How To Be a Durable Human: Revive and Thrive in the Digital Age Through the Power of Self-Design and The Durable Human Manifesto. Her writing has informed millions on ABC News and Discovery Health Channel, in The Washington Post, Readers Digest and other news outlets.
Jenifer founded DurableHuman.com in 2009 and is the mother of three grownup durable humans, two of whom have little ones in training.
Hi Pls. advise if virtual autism symptoms be reversed in 36 month old. Its been 1 week we stopped the screen. Pls. help. What to do ?
This has been unanswered for many days. I have heard it fade away well when people have started as late as 20 months old. I do not have any real worls examples.
But baby brains are capable of changing. Try your best, a lot of human interaction, no screens, a lot of outdoor.
I have very high hope that he would heal, brains of children are capable of moulding. I wish you best
Sorry we missed your comment @Shweta How is it going? @ankur is right that your little one needs to have no screens, lots of human interaction, and time outdoors. Hope you have reviewed the posts here about Virtual Autism and read the comments. Be sure to see the post A Mother Speaks about Virtual Autism so you learn from Robin’s success with her son. There are also videos by Lori Frome on the Durable Human YouTube channel. 36 months is still well within the window that clinicians have reported very young children can improve from the symptoms of screen overuse. You’ll see in the comments here that parents report that the effort you put into your child now is not easy, but is well worth it in the end! Will watch for your response.
Hi everyone I know I’m very late. I have spent hours crying and reading comments. I’m ashamed of my ignorance. My child has spent most of his days in front of a screen since 4 months and I am now learning and living through the effects. He is about to be 5 years old and I feel like it is too late for recovery. Everything that I have read says screen detox works in younger kids. I feel hopeless and mad at myself. If only I knew what I was doing to him, I never would have.
Hello, Faith. Thank you for writing in. It has taken tremendous courage. I see how you feel hopeless, but try to feel HOPEFUL you are understanding your child’s needs. 5 years old is not too late to intervene. A great first step is to watch Lori Frome’s presentation at the Virtual Autism World Summit. You can see her talk at 1:37:57 at this link: https://youtu.be/_nC3hS3oYJ0. For your background, you may also want to watch the entire summit. I hope others will also lend their thoughts about where to begin. There are now more resources than ever to help!
Hello Faith,
I don’t have a lot of experience with children over 5 doing the screen removal protocol, however, someone I am very close to as a child and still am today was nonverbal autistic as a small child. Interestingly, there was a period of time where the TV in his household was broken, and the family did not get a new one. He was older than 5 at this time. This spurred a period of stronger recovery than he was experiencing before. Coupled with ABA both at home and at school, and no screens and social interactions at home, he is now an adult that speaks, works as a graphic designer, dates, has a house and lives on his own, drives a car, goes on vacation, has friends, hobbies, plays multiple instruments at expert level, etc.
I think you still have to try it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Hi Faith. You are in a transitional phase age-wise, so you may also want to read Reset Your Child’s Brain by Victoria Dunckley, M.D. She writes about how to have a screen fast for an older child. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=reset+your+child%27s+brain&crid=2A0VEC6734HA6&sprefix=reset+your+child%27s+brain%2Caps%2C2860&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_1_24
Hi Faith,
I don’t know anything about your son but what you have written. What I do know about virtual autism as a whole is that it is never too late to see positive changes. It may take longer, require more intensive one on one time on your part and more therapeutic resources. You may have some challenges with screen removal at school, but if I were in your shoes I would not lose hope and DEFINITELY try it. I would commit to a time frame that you feel comfortable with, but at least 6 weeks at a minimum, and see where that brings you! Don’t forget about the social interaction being super high as well. Everything you can do to involve your child in your life and routines is so important as well as involving yourself in your child’s play on the floor. I used this tool (below) with my own son and have shared it with many others for progress monitoring of symptoms by parents so they can have data in their decision making regarding removing screens and increasing social interaction as much as possible. If you live in the US/Canada and have access to ABA services I highly recommend that too but make sure the providers are not using screens or light up toys. https://www.childbrain.com/patient-education/the-asd-assessment-scale-screening-questionnaire/
Hi my son is now 3.3 years old, we stopped screens when he was 2.10 years old (33 months old). So no screens for 6 months currently, and currently we are 4 months into home based therapy.
Improvements thus far:
I am concerned about his speech development. Home based therapies have really been wonderful and I will continue them, and now I getting him set up for ABA , ST to start within the next 2 months. Now with 6 months screen free, how long does speech take to come? He was received screens from age 6 months to 33 months – from 6 months to 12 months (4+ hours of ms rachel) , and then from 12 months to 33 months (1+ hour of ms rachel and super simple songs and the rest of the 8+ hours of background TV like sports/news commentators, minimal time outside).
Hello @Jas. We checked in with Robin, whom we interview and tell her success story in the post “A Mother Speaks about Her Toddler, Screen Time, and Virtual Autism.” https://durablehuman.com/a-mother-speaks-about-her-toddler-screentime-and-virtual-autism/ She has some great information to share with you: “Your child is following the exact trajectory we see with nearly all, if not all, the children that go through recovery after stopping screens. First they regain social skills and the desire to be social, as well as gestures. Then they begin to learn receptive language. Then finally, spoken language emerges. Your child is in the receptive language building stage. It is the longest stage of recovery. Each child has their own individual timeline, so I cannot say for certain how long it will be until your child begins to speak. But I can tell you that from what you have told me, they most certainly will speak. Keep naming all items and actions. Keep your language around your child. Example: instead of saying “this is a puppy.” Simply say “puppy.” The more you talk to your child and label, the more they will fill their receptive language “bucket”. When that bucket gets full enough, it begins to overflow. That overflow happens in the form of spoken langue.
I encourage you to look at the comments section within this post (Virtual Autism: A New Threat to Toddlers) comments section. Particularly a stretch of comments between myself (Robin) and a father named Ankur. Much about encouraging spoken language during the receptive language building period is discussed there. Ankur’s daughter is now fully recovered and never stops talking he has told me. He was right where you were once. As was I.” We hope Robin’s comments and experience help. Please keep in touch.
We are almost 14 months no screens. It’s been the most terrifying time of my life watching my daughter act the way she was and falling behind, but finally once she was almost to 1 year no screens language emerged. I never gave up. I kept pushing. The screen wasn’t even an option so I never looked back. I want parents who read this to know I understand the depths of pain you feel because I was there too. Do not give up. The screen time is what caused all these issues. My daughter had zero eye contact zero name response she never pointed she never said words. It was truly horrific. Finally awareness came, then eye contact kept improving and then finally one day she just began pointing 10 months after screen removal. Then within a week of pointing, words came. Now she says so many words, she can count to 10, says alphabet up to the letter G, and she barely started words a few months ago. She still toe walks which drives me nuts but I did that too as a child. Please keep tech away and don’t give up. God saved my child and I had to execute the action of protecting her and you can too!
how old your little one now? can you please tell me the story of her/his improvement?
Hi! She’s 3 and 3 months now. Story is quite long but we stopped screens 1 week before age 2. So she’s 15 months no screens now. She started awareness first. More eye contact gradually improved. Stemming lessened each month. Now her only issue is toe walking. She finally says so many words. Always responds to her name. She changed so much. She’s still delayed compared to her peers but really she was exposed two years on screens heavily, so I cannot expect her to be just like those other kids. I do get her alot of therapy at daycare and she has a full schedule. We never allow any screens not even in the background.
Hi Lilly,
This is all very good to hear. At what age did you stop screens for your child? And did you use any interventions such as ABA, OT, ST?
Hi! We stopped screens 1 week before age 2. We do Aba, OT and speech therapy but honestly OT has been the best because it taught her joint attention which you need before you can learn anything! We also got stem cells in March! We will be doing 4 rounds of stem cells total over 2 years. She says so many words now, but she’s still delayed compared to her peers. I am hoping one day she will catch up but I do think she needs at least 3 years no screens to be “better” fully. It really takes time bc i definitely damaged her accidentally by all the super simple songs she used to watch over and over. Now we are at ZERO screens for 15 months!
My daughter is now 32 months old. We stopped the screen when she was 12 months old.
I am here to talk about the progress, Robin has been our mentor and guide the whole time.
My 32 months old daughter, can now speak about several thousands of words. Can count to 10, identifies alphabets, shapes, colors, vehicles, and animals, and knows and can describe 100s of stories and their characters.
She speaks with us all of the time. Can string long sentences like “I have become a little naughty but Santa can still give me a gift, I am not too naughty, children who are very naughty don’t get a gift from Santa”. She can now express her feelings in a collection of 5-6 very well-formed sentences.
She uses pronouns correctly 100% of the time.
Asks why questions all day long, can answer who, what, where, and how questions 100% correctly with perfect contextual awareness. She can answer “when” questions but incorrectly, and correctly sometimes, she is still figuring out time. answers why questions correctly sometimes, refuses to answer saying “I will not tell” and other times when she doesn’t know how to answer, this is a work in progress.
Can sing long songs. Can read books with us, name 100s of characters and what they do in the book along with context, and tell contexts of the stories.
I still remember at the 20-month mark she only had about 10 barely understandable words, but her understanding was far better, after that we started telling her stories, I remember the 1st day when I told her that “Come to me, and I will tell you a story” and she immediately climbed on my lap, and that point onwards, we continued this regime of telling her stories, she loved it, we making faces, enunciating words, narrating and enacting the stories and characters, she was fascinated and curious and we used that in our advantage.
I think most of the techniques are covered here by one or another parent, one thing that I want to add that worked well with my daughter was reading books and telling her stories, I have a collection of about 100 books at my home now which we have been reading to her, and she remembers all those stories now. While reading books in-acting the character and speaking from the perspective of the character using the right pronouns helped us teach her pronouns better. Colorful books attract children, and when they are interested they can be taught. With all the other things that all the parents are doing please also read books to your children, and not just read but enact the conversations that help develop language and contextual things such as pronouns.
I hope this story may bring some courage into the hearts of the parents like how Robin’s story brought into mine when I needed it the most.
Such a beautiful testimony @Ankur – and so powerful and important for our readers and all parents. Thank you for taking the time to share! Lots of new research also points to reading books together as being crucial for brain and language development.
You’re so lucky you caught it at 12 months. We caught it all so late, 23 months 🙁
Lyla, kids are mouldable, please stick to the basics. Go with as much as human interaction as possible.
Give them tons of exposure to the bright colors of books and the outdoors along with human interactions.
Speak a lot with them narrate everything, and read to them. I know a boy in our family had a spoken language of barely 10 words at the age of 30 months, today he can speak fluently, he was also exposed to a lot of TV(4 hours a day) and his parents did not even know it has to do with TV.
Stick to basics, remember there is no other way, also pull in help, like grandparents if possible, my parents played a crucial role in keeping my daughter engaged when we needed that the most.
It will work out! I read your other remark showing your daughter’s emotional connection, language will develop, just make sure you engage her, if your daughter is connected, if she is paying attention to your activities she can and will learn from it.
I have some tricks to teach pointing, This is how I taught my daughter pointing, at 14 months mark 2 months into no screen she was still not responding to her name half of the time, but she was curious and used to trying to reach to a Budha figure kept in my home, so I started keeping it on a place that was pretty high, I took my little one in my arms and stood next to Budha statue, she saw it and tried to reach to it, when she did I moved a little towards the figure and let her have it, then, I did the same thing, and continued to increase the distance a few cm at a time every time when she tries to reach, I would move towards it and let her have it, after a while when I was couple feet away from it and she looked at it, I started pointing at it saying do you that(pointing at the thing), after a couple of days doing this exercise holding her in my arms, she started pointing at the things(Remember pointing is extension to reaching), I also did a lot of points towards a lot of other things at home that were of her interest holding her in my arms, I will move around in the house, point at things, will take her to things I was pointing to and let her touch and feel the things. Basically, I did what I should have done when she was 5 months old. Kids typically learn it when they see us do it, if you never point she will never know there is a thing like pointing. So, you have to do activities, a lot of them that you have not done. I learned a lot of them from Robin. It boils down to picking items from MCHAT-R and finding activities that may help your daughter learn those skills.
Buy colorful kids’ books, make her see the books along with you, point at the items, and say their names out loud. This will help her with nouns, Enunciate a lot(kids learn to speak looking at your mouth movements), and focus on the right words like when you have a cookie in your hand, say “you want a cookie”, when you say “cookie”, speak the word cookie out loud so that it stands out, and point at it at the same time. That way she will be able to associate nouns with objects, this is the first aspect of language that a child learns i.e. the nouns.
Once your daughter knows some nouns, she will have some words and whatever you will speak will make some sense to you because at least she will know what you are talking about. Then focus on verbs, like words like “Give and take”, when you have to give it, hand it over to her and tell her “Take the cookie” Since she would know what cookie means she would be able to make it out that “take” means an action. For pronouns, always use them correctly yourself, when you say “pat on your chest” I mean you in this instance, I have some pronoun tips handy, and I can share them when you are there, I hope to see you there in another few months. I got the pronoun mess-up heads up from Robin, so we were very careful modeling them for our daughter.
As I said, focus on nouns, then verbs, and then when your child knows these two she will string other automatically, make sure you read her books for language development, pick bright colorful books, with animals, and birds(to teach nouns), and textures(for sensory) and spend hours in front of them. Remember you are the real OT, real language therapist and you can do it. You have started late, but kids are mouldable with a lot of patience and perseverance it will work. You can do it. Your little one is counting on your success.
As far as anxiety is concerned, I too was too anxious, I have slept countless sleepless nights, praying for the recovery of my daughter, and there is no workaround to that. But remember that at least I know someone who had only 10 words with only pointing skills at the age of 30 months, is speaking now at the mark of 4 years fluently. Stay strong, I wish you the best!
Hi Ankur! Amazing story! Congratulations!! Can you please your tips on pronouns? Thank you!!
Hi Luz, until my daughter was around 22 months we did not use any pronouns at home to keep the things simple for her, we were always speaking in 1st person. Like “give the ball to MOM”, “come to PAPA”, etc. We also never referenced her by any pronouns.
By the end of 22 months, she started speaking and answering small questions like, “who wants to have the ball?”, and she would say “Adu”. so she would always refer to her by the name, 1st person. like “Adu wants candy”, “Adu needs milk” etc.
Then when it was established that she understood nouns fairly well, we started adding the pronouns. One extremely important thing is your child observing conversations of 3 people including her, with 2 people “You” and “Me” become very confusing, but with 3 people child can understand that words like “you” are not nouns, I will explain later, but you need at least 3 people in conversations for a child to have a better understanding of pronouns..
1st thing we did was to explain to her “I” and “Me”, So when I would ask her who wanted the candy and she replied “Adu wants”, we explained to her ourselves that you can say “I want” and when we say the word I, we would also make her hand pat her chest. So, word “I” was always associated with her patting her chest. Similar to things like “Mine” or “Me”. So we would make her speak things like “I”, “Me”, and “Mine” by incentivizing them with some treat. So we explained to her where she could substitute “I”, “Me”, and “Mine” instead of her name, and every time we did it, we made her pat her chest giving an idea that those words associated with her. We did this exercise several times a day, whenever she would say “Adu wants” or “This is Adu’s”, we would correct her and tell her you could say it like “I want” and “This is mine” and incentivize it one way or other.
About teaching the 2nd person, we started with keeping nouns and pronouns together in the beginning like we would say “Adu, you go and do that”, or “Adu, you come to me”, so nouns and pronouns both together. This is where 3rd person comes into the picture, when your child is sufficiently observant have fun conversations with your partner that the child may find worth observing, it can be about anything, and use all the pronouns along with nouns, like “Mom, you tell me what noise did monkey make in the zoo”, So keeping things like “Mom and you” together, then when the mother would refer to the child or the dad, she would do the same. So children can understand pronouns can be used by anyone, and point at themselves when you use a pronoun. We did this for about 3-4 months by the time she was 26 months old, she used all the pronouns correctly.
Another thing that Robin had told me earlier which was of utmost importance was that when your child makes a pronoun mistake correct her immediately, and make her say the right word. If you won’t promptly correct it, the child would register that as a right response and that is where the problem begins. You remove this incorrect registration and things will go smoothly from there. Wish you the best!
23 months isn’t late! Do not give up.
Great to know about the progress of your daughter Ankur.
My son likes the book but he doesn’t love the explanation maybe I need more explanation and in-act.
I also would like to know your daughter’s schedule during the day and what are the milestones you saw in this journey.
They slowly grow the liking to things. On TVs, they are bombarded with bright colors and frequent changes to screen changes to keep them hooked, plus the music and repetitive sounds. So, colorful books are still something that attracts children and allows you to get their attention, gaining their attention is the most important thing, if they pay attention they can learn.
My daughter’s schedule is pretty normal in general now a days, me and my wife are both working, with some flexibility to do work from home, so we plan our week such that at least one of us is home, and we have a nanny that assists us. So, my daughter gets up, and now since she is potty trained now, so after potty and brushing, she plays on her own for a bit then the nanny shows up, who keeps her engaged and plays with her, helps feed her, (We still have to feed her ourselves, she doesn’t have the patience to sit and have our food unless she is really hungry), then she plays with her toys, keeps herself engaged with books, drawing books, we also take breaks from work and spend time playing with her, reading her books if she wants us to read one(Nowadays since she knows how to speak, she picks them up and brings to us and ask to read), , take her out a bit before the sun is fully up, giving her massage and bath, play bit more, having lunch and then post lunch she sleeps for a couple of hours, then in the evening when she is up, we let her have some snacks(some nuts, dry fruits, fruit, etc.) then we head to kids park or just a walk, play a bit there, where she also plays along with some other kids of her age, and then get back home, dinner, some more play, some more books and stories, and then it is time to bed. Pretty much the same every day, it is boring, but it is fine. We also have had my parents living with me for the last 6 months so there are many people at home to play with her, Human interaction is very important, the more people the better it is(As they say it takes a village to raise a child). She is back to some screen time now, but basically, it is only about her seeing our photos on the phone and video calls, nothing animated.
On milestones, I pulled my email conversations with Robin when she was guiding me, and here is what milestones appear roughly:
12 months:
Stopped screen time completely.
Response to name : Zero
Perceptive language: Zero
14 months:
She responded to name calls half the time.
Eye contact was pretty great.
Pointing emerged.
She understood object permanence and started finding hidden objects.
Some perceptive language emerged, she could understand put in and take out.
Beginning of 17 months:
Perceptive language became apparent. She could now answer questions, e.g. asking where is elephant, she could start pointing to the elephant.
Some rudimentary spoken language emerged, she only grunted but tried to mimic the sounds of cat and dog when asked.
Good use of pointing for communicating what she needs.
18 months:
Good perceptive language. She could follow directions now, “give me the elephant”, and “put the toy on the table”.
Name call response: 70%.
Spoken language: Some more rudimentary sounds, but mainly grunts and a lot of babbling with ba ba, ma ma, pa pa sounds but not meaningful use of sounds.
Very good pointing, and hand-leading emerged, she would pull the finger and take us to items that she needed.
20 months:
spoken language: At this point, we actively started putting efforts in 1.) Modeling some words like Mom and Papa, SInce she had decent perceptive language by now, I would hold her and tell her that “See, I will call your mama and she will come” and then I would call her mom loud, and ask her to do the same, and lo and behold within 2 weeks, she was calling papa and mama to gain our attention.
Perceptive language: Pretty good, she could point at almost all the household items when asked where they were, meaning she knew at least 500+ nouns and many verbs, as she could perform the actions we asked her to do, she knew colors and shaped and adjectives by now(like big/small etc.) Flash cards, books helped a lot.
21 months:
spoken language: She started speaking around 20+ words by now, only understandable to us.
23 months:
She was speaking in small 2-word sentences, like “Want ball”, “go there” etc.
At this point we started using pronouns heavily, we were very careful(Thanks for heads-up from Robin) to model it correctly.
24 months:
Small sentences emerged, like “I need milk”, “Want to go outside”.
Pronouns emerged, like “I”, “You”, “Me”, “We” etc.
She started asking what and where questions.
and now she is about to be 32 months and can speak countless words, and can express most of the ideas that she wants to. From month 12 to month 24, as a family all our activities revolved around her, we pulled out every available moment and did activities with her, took her out to get her experiences (mall, zoos, lakes, parks, books) and quite honestly we only did what we should have done 6 months earlier. So things are really basic, you have to do what you want your child to do, you want him to point, you point a lot, and so on and so forth.
What I have seen so far is that boys seek more physical activities than books, you can lean on his interest and start modeling his activities with words.
Mam please suggest me.I m physiotherapist nd currently working women. Mam my baby is 1year old. She behaved normal, proper eye contact. But after maternity leave when i joined duty diring 8 month to 12 month her life is always watching tv nd sleep. Now i notice she didn’t respond her name. No eye contact. Doc diagnosed she have mild virtual autism. Now I completely eliminate screen time. Please i want to know about how many month she take to give response. i m giving my time to her with playing activities. What i can do. How to make eye contact and avoid visual stimming 🥺🥺
Regard
I would advise you to go through the comments made by other parents here. I benefitted from them, Robin’s success story was my motivation. In the threads below she has explained a lot of techniques that I used. Find them in the conversations below. I was equally anxious as you were. Here are some of the suggestions, but you will find more from the logs below with my earlier interactions with Robin.
1.) No screen time, absolutely zero.
2.) Give her sensory play, take her out every day for 2 hours, 1 in the morning, and 1 in the evening. Let her feel nature, she will feel overwhelmed in the beginning, my daughter only touched grass for many months, but let her absorb all that.
3.) Human interaction is the key, find ways to interact with her, speak to her as much as you can, tell her what you are doing, and describe to her what she is doing. Carry her around and take her to things she appears interested in, asking her questions like “What is this”, point, label and naming the things, that way she will develop an understanding of the nouns.
4.) Point a lot, speak with her, and let her observe the conversations of the family members, it may appear that she is avoiding all that but they listen and understand.
5.) For better eye contact, play peek-a-boo a lot, play hide and seek with her, hide behind places, and make sounds, children love that, once she gets into this play, you will have her attention and from their things will start to fall in place.
I stopped screen time when my daughter was 12 months, She got eye contact back in a few months, her response to name calls improved over like 6 months, learned to point before she was 15 months, and before 16 months she knew many nouns and could answer by pointing to “Where is” questions. She will be fine, just make sure you are not missing out on the human interactions part, the more you do the better it is, and yet again, it has to be a quality interaction, go to her level when you try to interact with her. If she is sitting and playing with things you too go sit next to her and then try connecting with her.
Sir i want to talk to you. Please can u give me ur email. My email id is parmjitkaur0009@gmail.com. Just want to know about va bcz as a mother of 1 year old baby i m suffering nowadays. Please reply thanku
Hi Ankur, are u from India?
Hi, yes. I am from India.
Could you whatsapp me on 9841806650
We are 8 weeks no screens. Almost 9. Showing some improvements like hugging me, kissing me, smiling at her dad again, noticing our dog who she never realized was there before. We started her in a great daycare that’s screen free, she gets OT and speech therapy weekly. We are trying so hard to do everything for our daughter because we believe it’s VA for her, but it’s early to tell. The anxiety is high and this is so stressful, but with the small improvements we see we are hopeful.
Hello, do you have any updates on your daughter? My daughter is showing signs of autism but she did alot get lots of screen time so I’m wondering if it may be virtual autism. She never responds to her name, gives minimal eye contact, doesn’t follow instructions and sings little baby bump all day. She also ignore other kids. Let me know. Thanks