Association Between Daily Screen Time Duration and Developmental Milestones Achievement In Children Aged 2-5 Years and Autism-Like Symptoms in India: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The research study compared the developmental milestones of children in foundational years with excessive screen time, and their similarity with those of children diagnosed with autism. The sample consisted of 325 parents of children aged between two and six years old in India. The Child Developmental Inventory (CDI) was used to assess developmental milestones for the current study as a tool for collecting data from parents. The findings demonstrated that there was a significant difference in the developmental milestones of children with high screen time and low screen time. The study also found that a similar result was observed for children diagnosed with autism, where a significant difference in developmental milestones was observed with low and excessive use of screen time. However, in both groups, academic capabilities were not affected and showed no significant difference. The study also compared typically developing children and autistic children concluding that there was similarity in the developmental milestones of typically developing children with high screen time and autistic children with low screen time which indicated that there is a need for an in-depth study on the similarity of the developmental milestones as they may mislead clinicians towards a misdiagnosis of autism and might be leading to autism-like symptoms in typically developing children.