Early screen exposure associated with atypical sensory processing
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Key takeaways:
- Ninety percent of children with autism and 60% with ADHD experience atypical sensory processing.
- Screen exposure at an early age was associated with twofold increased odds of atypical sensory processing.
Early-life exposure to screens and digital media was associated with higher odds of atypical sensory processing in a study of nearly 1,500 children, researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics.
Atypical sensory processing occurs in 90% of children with autism and approximately 60% of children with ADHD, according to Karen F. Heffler, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia and co-author of the study.
“Sensory symptoms are associated with hyperactivity, restricted or repetitive behavior, irritability, behavioral problems and emotional dysregulation,” Heffler told Healio.
“Sensory-related meltdowns and behaviors can be very disruptive to family life, interfere with family participation in community events and are associated with increased caregiver stress,” she said. “Prior to this study there was little understanding of the relationship between screen exposure and sensory processing outcomes. Since screen time is a potentially modifiable factor, understanding the association between early-life screen time and atypical sensory processing could potentially offer benefit to children and families.”
Heffler and colleagues hypothesized that early-life screen time would be associated with atypical sensory processing outcomes because the brain develops connectivity based on the sensory experiences of a young child.
“Infants do not have the capability to fully understand what they see on TV or video, but the lights, colors, sounds and movement experienced during screen time would have an impact on how the neurons in the brain connect, potentially affecting sensory processing pathways and sensory-related behavior,” Heffler said.
For their study, they examined data from the National Children’s Study, for which parents measured their child’s exposure to screens. They were asked whether their children were viewing TV or videos at age 12 months and how many hours of screen time per day at ages 18 months and 24 months.
The researchers controlled for the effects of prematurity, parent education, race/ethnicity, family income and two measures of parent-child engagement: how often the parent played with toys with their child and took walks with their child.
They measured sensory processing outcomes using the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile, a parent questionnaire administered when children were about 33 months and which classifies sensory processing into four categories referred to as “quadrant scores.”
In a cohort of 1,471 children, the researchers found that screen exposure at 12 months of age was associated with a twofold increased odds of being in the high category of low registration (OR = 2.05; 95% CI, 1.31-3.2), whereas the odds of being in the low category instead of the typical category decreased for sensation seeking (OR = 0.55; 95% CI, 0.35-0.87), sensation avoiding (OR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.5-0.94) and low registration (OR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.44-0.92).
In patients aged 18 months, greater screen exposure was associated with increased risk for high sensation avoiding (OR = 1.23; 95% CI, 1.03-1.46) and low registration (OR = 1.23; 95% CI, 1.04-1.44. At 24 months of age, greater screen exposure was associated with increased risk of high sensation seeking (OR = 1.2; 95% CI, 1.02-1.42), sensory sensitivity (OR = 1.25; 95% CI, 1.05-1.49), and sensation avoiding (OR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.03-1.42).
Heffler encouraged physicians with patients whose symptoms are associated with atypical sensory processing to inquire about the children’s screen viewing habits, and said that further research could determine if early-life screen time contributes to sensory hyperconnectivity and audiovisually oriented attention mechanisms found in some children with autism.
“If the infant or toddler has a history of TV or video viewing for several hours a day or the TV is frequently on in the background, clinicians and parents may consider a trial of turning off the screens and using the time instead for social interaction and play,” Heffler said. “There is emerging evidence that markedly reducing screen time and increasing socially engaging activities in young children with autism, for example, are associated with reduction of autism-related symptoms, including the sensory-related symptoms of restricted/repetitive behavior.”
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