Correlation Between Autism And Screen Exposure

Background:With the development of science and technology and the improvement of living standards,more and more kinds of screen multimedia devices integrated into people’s life more and more widely,and consciously or unconsciously become a part of the life of infants.When people enjoy the benefits brought by screen media,the negative effects caused by exposure to "smart phones,tablets,computers,TV and game systems" are increasingly apparent.A small number of studies at home and abroad call this kind of exposure "screen media exposure" [1],and believe that screen media exposure will affect children’s cognitive,language and psychological behavior development.Not only the number of confirmed autism in children has increased with the improvement of medical technology,but also the incidence rate has been increasing year by year with the change of living environment.For example,in the daily life or institutional rehabilitation training of autistic children,multimedia devices are often used to attract their attention and strive for their cooperation.Research shows that when they use the screen,there is no emotional interaction between young children and their caregivers[2,3],which will have a negative impact on their psychological and behavioral development(especially their language development)[4].Many international studies have shown that exposure to screen media has a significant impact on children’s health[5],including language disorders[6-10].The core symptoms of autistic children are social interaction disorder,narrow interest and repetitive stereotyped behavior.Most of them have language disorder.At present,there are many reports about the environmental risk factors of autism at home and abroad,but the research results are not consistent,and the research on the correlation between screen media exposure and autism is rare.Objective:Guided by the medical research focus of high risk factors of autism,and starting from the life problem of screen media exposure,we try to find the potential correlation between the two,so as to provide the basis for the early prevention and early intervention of autistic children.Methods:In this paper,autistic children and normal children were randomly selected as case group and control group.They were all under9 years old.We conducted a questionnaire survey on the two groups of children,collected,collated and analyzed the differences between the two groups in the age,average time and types of screen exposure,and analyzed the correlation between the clinical characteristics of children with autism and screen exposure factors.Results: 1)among the related factors of screen media exposure,the rank sum test showed that there was no significant difference in the ASD group and the normal children group in screen exposure category,initial age of screen media contact and average daily contact time in the main age group(P > 0.05).There were significant differences between ASD group and normal group in active / passive screen media contact and emotional changes before and after screen media deprivation,average daily contact time of initial screen exposure,main age group of screen media contact,family accompany,main screen media contact(P<0.05);Logistic regression analysis of the last four factors showed that "the average daily exposure time of initial screen exposure,the main age group of screen media exposure,family companionship,and the main screen media content" were risk factors for ASD.2)Compared with normal children,autistic children show more negative emotions when facing "screen media deprivation".Conclusion:The incidence of autism is related to screen media exposure.Compared with normal children,children with autism show more negative emotions in the face of "screen media deprivation";avoiding children’s contact with screen media before 2 years old,or controlling children’s contact with music or appropriate animation media for less than1 hour after 2 years old,may avoid the occurrence of autism to a certain extent.