Abhishek Baranwal (35) was flummoxed when the paediatrician broke the news to him about his 3-year-old son. The look on the doctor’s face showed concern, mixed with something else Abhishek couldn’t discern. “I think your son does not have autism spectrum disorder. I believe he has virtual autism,” the doctor announced. “Virtual autism? What is that? I’ve heard of autism but not this? How did he get it?” he wondered.
Abhishek couldn’t wrap his head around it for many days following the diagnosis. His son Advitya was born in Sept 2019. But for the last two years, he had stopped talking or responding to his name. He was engrossed in his own world with a smartphone in his hand all the time.
Abhishek and his wife initially feared hearing impairment but the test turned out negative. That is when they approached a child specialist who, after consulting with a psychologist, arrived at the diagnosis of virtual autism.Abhishek thought that he was the only parent whose child suffered from this. “No one in my family or the friend circle has encountered this problem,” he said.
After he started researching and speaking to people about the disorder, he got to know more about it. “In my society block alone, I found at least 11 families who had small children diagnosed with the same issue,” he said.
Thin line between autism & virtual autism
SOURAV ROYThe phrase virtual autism was formulated in 2018 by Marius Teodor Zamfir, a Romanian psychologist. He found that children aged 0-3 years who stared at screens for over four hours a day, had “sensory-motor and socio-affective deprivation”.Doctors said there is a very thin line between autism and virtual autism. Virtual autism is different from typical autism and is sometimes difficult to assess and pin down.
So, what is the difference between them? The answer lies in knowing what virtual autism is. Virtual autism is actually a condition that is believed to occur when young children (under the age of three) are exposed to excessive screen exposure. This happens when too much screen time causes symptoms similar to autistm.
“The symptoms of autism and virtual autism are almost the same but classic autism could be by birth or trauma or other factors, whereas virtual autism is caused only by excessive screen time,” said Dr Saurabh Khanna, lead consultant, peadiatrics & neonatology at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram.
“Such children do not interact, socialize or maintain eye contact. They are hyperactive and find it difficult to concentrate on things. They remain in their own virtual world. That’s how the term was coined. These symptoms may overlap with classic autism but such children can’t be categorised as autistic,” said Dr Rajiv Uttam, director & head of the department, paediatrics at Medanta Hospital, Gurugram.
Experts said that they warn parents about the risk factors of too much screen exposure – four or more hours a day – for young children. Intensive early screen exposure at an early age can cause problems in a developing brain, they say. According to them, spending too many hours a day in a virtual environment withholds key stimuli on a child’s developing brain.Doctors have also found a link between virtual autism and Covid. “We have seen kids coming with symptoms for a year now. Covid-19 has a lot to do with them,” said Dr Uttam.
Role played by pandemic & lockdown
According to some research, changes associated with the pandemic negatively impacted the educational and health-related issues of children. “The lockdown adversely affected sensory-motor development, cognitive abilities, sleep, morale, behavior, and social interactions in a large proportion. A decrease in exposure to social situations may all contribute to increases in behavioural and emotional problems, such as more restricted, repetitive behaviours, sleep problems, anxiety, and aggression,” a study published in the World Journal of Virology says.
Experts said that the lockdown, closure of schools, parks and others avenues of social gathering during the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted brain development and social skills of the children.“For a year, I have been approached by parents whose children are facing these issues. Such cases were reported earlier as well but I believe the problem got exacerbated during the Covid years because of restrictions in social interaction. Since there was no screening system in place during the pandemic, these cases remain hidden. It seems that due to increased monitoring these days, such cases are coming up now,” said Dr Uttam.
“What we have observed in last two years is that children are on the screen all the time. The schools went online. The homework and class assignments were done online. There was no limit to screen exposure. It affected their cognitive skills badly. A lot of psychological issues are coming up in adoloscents who are spending more time on screens,” he added.
“The children learn by exploring all of their senses through touch, taste, smell, watching and hearing things around their surroundings. When constantly exposed to gadgets, kids will not be able to learn things about the real world. Schools and playing in the open are the two avenues where a child learns skills and communication. Unfortunately, pandemic snatched these opportunities from the children for very long time, hampering their development. They now face communication problems and often show behaviour oddities,” said Dr Sneha Bansal, speech-language pathologist and audiologist.
Parents’ attitudes are to blame too
While screen time is the factor behind the rise in the virtual autism disorder, the real problem is the attention-deficit on part of the parents towards their children, especially in nuclear families.“If you look into this properly you will find that the main reason is screen time but also nuclear family and less quality time from parents,” said Dr Khanna. “Parents don’t spend quality time with kids because of their fast paced lives, letting them stare at digital devices as a reward, or at feeding time as well even as the trend of staying in nuclear families without kids getting due attention continues,” he added.
Abhishek, who was quoted above, works as a sales executive with an FMCG brand. He admitted that he could not spend much time with his son due to career engagements.“My profession needs me to be on field every day. The ‘Work From Home’ option was not availed to me during Covid-19 because my profession was categorised under essential services. I deliberately distanced myself with my son after returning home from work because there was no Covid vaccine available for children and I was afraid that I might spread the virus to him. Apart from me, there is only my wife to take care of him. She is also a professional and used to work from home. I believe we could not give the attention required to our son which has led him to get this disorder,” he said.
Experts said that even those parents who had the privilege of working from home did not pay much attention and used smart phones or computers to make them engaged in activity, which was a gross misjudgment on their part.“We had an open forum with the children at a school in Gurugram where they admitted that they are on screen much more than they should be. When we asked why, all of them said that because their parents are working continuously, binge watching things on mobile, with minimal interactions. You see, kids learn by example,” said Dr Uttam.Exposing the children to screens only because parents are more engrossed in work is actually putting them at risk of many issues. These children develop language and cognition issues. Their speech is delayed.
Noting warning signs early is crucial
Experts said that timely diagnosis and monitoring early signs is crucial in the treatment of the disorder. Shraddha Katiyar, a parent whose daughter did not speak even after 3 years of birth apart from exhibiting other symptoms of virtual autism, had to seek help from a speech therapist. “My child was not speaking, not responding. Then we sought expert help. We went to a govt hospital. There, the doctor asked us to pay more attention to her and asked us to only respond to her when she utters something. We eliminated screens from her life and started spending time together. Her condition improved. Finally, we approached a speech therapist. Now after 6 months, my daughter has started singing rhymes,” she said.
“Speech delay is a very common among and a classic symptom among children suffering from virtual autism. So parents should see the warning signs and seek medical care for timely diagnosis. A simple speech issue can lead a child to a lot of other problem like under-confidence and poor mental health. So timely recognition is a key,” Dr Bansal said.Dr Uttam said that if the disorder remains undiagnosed, children may suffer from a lifelong trauma.
“They turn more and more introvert as these children find difficulty in communication and socializing. They are less likely to have friends. Without friendship and social interaction, such children don’t learn the traits like give and take and even value of relationships. They start behaving by instinct. Their school performance gets affected. They are more likely to be picked on by teachers. Bullying is also expected. The lack of performance worsens the mental health and the symptoms starts manifesting physically as well like headaches, abdominal pain, numbness on one side, anxiety, panic attacks etc. It becomes a vicious circle. Lack of diagnosis leads to psychological issues affecting motor and phys cal abilities and underdevelopment of mental traits,” he said.
“If parents are not aware of the problems, then the children are going to be silent sufferers. If the parents do not understand or take remedial affects on themselves, then the problem is just going to get worse. If we don’t monitor and diagnose this condition, a whole generation will be raised with maximum mental health issues” Dr Uttam warned.
