THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS FOR SCREEN-INDUCED SOCIAL COMMUNICATION DELAYS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Excessive early screen exposure has been increasingly associated with social communication delays in toddlers. There is emerging evidence which supports a clinically distinct yet potentially reversible presentation termed virtual autism. Though there is a work on screen-dominant toddler in clinical environments, yet practitioner-level evidence regarding therapeutic management of this population is not as much. Therefore, this study has been conducted with eight purposively sampled clinicians who are practising in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, and Multan. Participants represented diverse professional backgrounds including behavioural therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and special education. Data were collected through semi-structured responses and subjected to inductive thematic analysis using qualitative research methodology. In results, eight themes are identified, which includes screen removal as a reversibility-based diagnostic indicator, a recognisable behavioural signature of screen dependence, displacement of native-language interaction, naturalistic re-engagement strategies, parent-mediated home interventions incorporating culturally adaptive tools, the joint family structure sometimes as a barrier to therapeutic consistency, social referencing as the primary recovery marker, and screen dependence as a caregiver-perpetuated phenomenon. In this study, clinicians has demonstrated implicit alignment with Naturalistic Developmental Behavioural Intervention principles, adapted to local sociocultural contexts without formal theoretical grounding. Effective intervention necessitates whole-family approaches. Findings of this study underscore on the need for a culturally validated assessment tools, structured screen-reduction protocols, and context-specific clinical guidelines within the developmental healthcare framework of Pakistan.

Keywords: Screen Time, Social Communication Delay, Virtual Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Speech Delay.