Gen alpha’s digital babysitter: are screens mimicking autism-like traits in toddlers?

By Areeba Arshad

The myth of today’s ‘smart’ toddlers. 

What do we mean by a smart toddler? A toddler who can skip YouTube ads, unlock a smartphone, or the fact that they are able to find their favorite cartoons and shows without any parental help? Or is it their ability to find their favorite apps and swipe through videos? Leaving adults fully impressed.

“She plays her favorite songs on her iPad herself”  

“He can unlock both his parents’ phones; he is going to be a future engineer”

“My child is already so smart with technology”

But are we sure that this is the correct measure of a toddlers’ intelligence?

That same child who can navigate touchscreens with ease, has difficulty communicating their needs. The same child has delayed speech and can only speak a handful of words and phrases and is unable to maintain consistent eye contact during conversations, or maybe unable to socialize, struggles to play with other children and become frantic when their iPads get taken away. Are these the smart toddlers? The technical skills are real. The developmental progress is not.

Walk into any popular spot in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi especially in restaurants you will find a familiar scene. A toddler barely 2-3 years old fully absorbed in their devices whether phones, tablets or iPads, and parents sitting beside them praising their children for keeping themselves entertained. 

In recent years, researchers have debated a relatively new term known as “Virtual Autism”, a term being coined by Romanian psychologist Marius Zamfir, in which he refers to autism-like behaviors including symptoms such as delayed speech, reduced social interests, limited eye contact, very limited attention span and repetitive focus on screen. 

The term has been used in discussions about toddlers with prolonged screen exposures, far exceeding the recommended screen time. The term virtual autism is not yet an official medical diagnosis. Because the classic autism is genetic and has life-long neurological basis. 

What the term ‘virtual autism’ is generally used to points towards the environmental factors: when the screen time replaces the slow, face-to-face and messy interactions in daily routines that these toddlers desperately need for healthy development of mind and body. If these needs are not met, children can develop symptoms that are worryingly similar to autism. 

Thus to show that, there is a difference between knowing to operate a digital device and actually being able to understand the world around you. 

Your child learning that swiping changes a video is a skill but not a very practical one. The development of a child is much greater than their ability to scroll and swipe of their devices, it includes language skills, being able to form stable sentences, social interactions, physical movements and their ability to engage with their environments.

Yet in many Pakistani homes, smartphones have taken over the role of parents, guardian and have become digital babysitters for their toddlers. 

A restless child? Just turn on his favorite You Tube channel.

A parent needs some quiet time? Just hand over the phone.

Sometimes it’s just convenient, sometimes it’s necessary. And before we know it that sometimes becomes a routine so we stop asking what the child might be missing while the screens keep them occupied. 

But perhaps there’s another question that is as important as the how long children are spending on screens? Perhaps we also need to look into the content these children are consuming?

Gen Alpha a generation of toddlers that are growing up with a type of content that is not only faster, but brighter and much more stimulating than much of the television any previous generations has consumed.  

To better understand this, we have to consider the differences between the conventional children’s stories which typically have a beginning, a middle, and an end that is relevant to the story. This differs from what todays platforms often allow such as endless scrolling options, children can move from one show to another without following a proper storyline, music, sounds, and colours changing rapidly and repeatedly. Thus creating a highly stimulating stream of constant clips. One asks the child to follow a narrative. The other can offer a constant stream of novelty. 

This distinction matters because these young children are still developing their ability to regulate attention, wait and process the consumed information and engage with the world accordingly. 

This is where the conversation about the “Digital Babysitters” becomes complicated.

The screen does not merely occupy a child’s time. It eventually becomes their primary source of stimulation. And instead of waiting for their parent’s response, the child gets an immediate response from their devices. 

A child can be remarkably skilled at navigating a touchscreen but still need, opportunities to develop language skills, social connections, physical activity, sustained attention and emotional regulation.

The main concern, then, is not that the toddler who can operate a device is somehow less intelligent. Rather, fact that digital fluency can be mistake for developmental maturity, even though the two are not the same thing. 

Perhaps, then, the question we should be asking is not simply: How much screen time is too much?

It is also what is the screen replacing?