Tengrinews.kz – Uncontrolled use of smartphones by children can lead to tragic consequences. One of them is the so-called virtual autism. The concept is relatively new, but already quite widespread and familiar to psychiatrists.
Developmental delays, inability to communicate with the outside world, irritability, aggression - children become so immersed in the virtual world that sometimes they have to be "pulled out" of it with the help of medical assistance.
Tengrinews.kz correspondent spoke with the chief freelance child psychiatrist of Almaty, head of the children's inpatient department of the Mental Health Center Olga Aleksandrova about the signs and factors of the development of "virtual autism."
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What is virtual autism?
Virtual autism is a smartphone addiction. However, there is no diagnosis of "virtual autism" as such in the medical classifier. It is, so to speak, an unofficial diagnosis.
It is most common among children. Due to prolonged use of gadgets, they have various problems, including behavioral ones. Children sit on their phones - in games, communicate only through social networks. They do not go outside, they can even forget that they need to eat, go to bed late or do not go to bed at all. That is, socialization is lost accordingly.
At what age does this appear?
There are completely different manifestations by age.
The earliest age when a child was given a phone is 5 months. The child does not bother his parents, he sits on the phone, watches cartoons. But this is where the problem arises: the child begins to talk late. And why talk if he does not need it, he has a more interesting world, a virtual world. Therefore, such children have a delay in development, there is no socialization, they do not know how to communicate, any communication with the outside world causes them anxiety. Accordingly, autism from the outside world itself begins. We are talking about small children from 5 months to 4-5 years.
If, for example, a child was given a phone at preschool age, he begins to play games. There are not only games, they can just listen to some fairy tales all day long, watch cartoons, YouTube. And again, there is no socialization, no communication, the child does not know how to communicate. And when these little ones come to school, big problems begin: increased anxiety, autism, does not communicate with anyone and does not know how to do it.
Well, and then by age: if these are teenagers, they sit endlessly in games, on social networks, there is no sleep or rest regime, irritability and aggression appear. There may be manifestations of a demonstrative-blackmail plan: if you don’t give me your phone now, then I will do something to myself. When trying to take away the smartphone, aggression, irritability, up to threats of suicide begin.
How do modern gadgets affect a child's development in general?
Gadgets may help in development in some places, with their help you can find some new programs, learn, get acquainted with the world of new technologies, and this is good. But on the other hand, they hinder children's emotional and social development.
Sometimes children go headlong into social networks, and nothing good should be expected from this. From there they can also take negative information, for example, about suicides. They are members of various communities, communicate there, find some problems, and the social circle is built precisely around this problem, and this sometimes leads to disastrous consequences. Everything should be in moderation. And, accordingly, there should be control over the child's use of gadgets.
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Communication skills are developed from childhood: first, the child communicates with mom and dad, then more, the circle of communication expands. And if it does not expand because the child sits on the phone, then the communication skill is lost. This will lead to the fact that there will be neither social nor emotional intelligence, which should develop normally. The child will lag behind in development. In the future, this will affect his life, his growing up, his ability to communicate in society. After all, a person is a social being in any case.
How is virtual autism different from regular autism?
Regular autism has its own triad of symptoms: this is autism itself, constant stereotypical movements or echolalia. The child is in his own world. And with virtual autism, the child is in the world of games, illusions that are available on gadgets. The only thing they have in common is that they cannot communicate in society.
How often do you encounter children with virtual autism in your practice?
Quite often parents of such children contact us. Because very early children get phones in their hands, parents give them so that they "don't interfere." The child sits quietly with the phone, and the parents do their own thing. It's convenient, on the one hand.
We had a case. The child played Minecraft, stopped eating, then stopped sleeping, certain fears began to appear, and in the end we had to hospitalize him in a psychiatric hospital, because the child's mental state was shaken.
In general, parents initially come to us with their children's problems: someone does not want to go to school, someone has become irritable, aggressive. And when you start to find out what the reasons are, they find out that the culprit is, let's say, uncontrolled spending time on gadgets.
What should be done to pull the child out of this state?
In addition to school, you need to engage your child in sports, clubs, and groups so that he spends less time on his cell phone, and give your child a cell phone as late as possible. There should be complete parental control on the Internet. It is necessary to explain to the child which sites can be visited and which cannot. And there should be time control - no more than two hours a day.
In order to distract a child from the phone, you need to occupy him with something else. When you occupy him with something else that interests him, then he moves away from the phone.
Of course, there are cases when you have to isolate a child in a hospital because strong aggression begins and the parents cannot cope. In a hospital, you cannot use a phone. The child at least for some time weans himself from gadgets, and then it is easier to smoothly rebuild the child's algorithm in the right direction, find him an activity he likes, enroll him in a section or a creative circle.
What are the statistics on autism in general?
We don't have statistics on virtual autism because, I repeat, it is not a diagnosis. However, the incidence of regular autism is increasing. No one can yet figure out the cause, where autism comes from. There are many different theories, but none of them have been confirmed. I have been working as a psychiatrist for 17 years, and there have never been so many cases of autism before. In recent years, there has been an increase, and a fairly large increase.
Recorded by Ainash Ondiris.
