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Overloading children with tutoring and activities: The dangerous trap parents fall into. Oana Zapca: "We often don’t even know why we’re doing it!"
Marius Zamfir emphasized the importance of defining the term "virtual autism" because there is much confusion surrounding this concept. The expert pointed out that this term does not represent a medical diagnosis and it is important to understand this, even if the children in question exhibit typical symptoms of autism.
"We need to define what virtual autism means because many people haven't truly understood what this term entails.
First of all, it is not a medical diagnosis! We need to understand that it is not a medical diagnosis, even though these children meet all the medical criteria to be diagnosed with autism.
For example, we cannot talk about virtual autism at present. Parents come to me and say, 'I think my child has virtual autism because I let him/her in front of screens.' We need to understand that not every child left in front of screens and exhibiting typical symptoms of autism means they have a form of virtual autism. Just as not every child with autism means it's from screens.
There are many discussions on parent forums like, 'Well, I didn't let him/her near screens and still, he/she has autism,' 'I let him/her near screens and he/she has it,' 'I vaccinated him/her,' 'I didn't vaccinate him/her,' and all sorts of contradictory discussions arise, precisely because they haven't understood what autism truly is.
We discussed in our previous show, in the microbiome part, what autism is, and I was telling you that autism is an impairment of a part of a factory. In autism, the social mechanisms are affected. The dopamine system is responsible for these social mechanisms, which we must see as a factory. And the language, communication, and thought mechanisms are also affected. Here we are talking about the neurosynaptic system, the system that produces neuronal connections.
In a factory, as we were saying, we may find something defective or something may be defective.
Ultimately, what we see as autism, without any medical analysis yet to concretely diagnose and confirm autism, we only evaluate external behaviors and thus make the diagnosis.
However, these behaviors that the child exhibits today,/she may not be exhibited tomorrow if the right steps are taken. That's why it's very important to find the cause", Marius Zamfir explained.
Marius Zamfir brought up the difference between "classic autism" and "virtual autism".
"In classic autism, something, somewhere is defective in everything that this factory should produce: pleasure hormones, social interaction, or neuronal connections, whereas in virtual autism, it's not necessarily something defective, simply the workers who were supposed to work in the factory aren't on the assembly line, they're outside on a tablet.
How do we realize this? That's why we can't talk about virtual autism at present! Only by starting the recovery process and seeing the recovery rate.
I have put on the autismvirtual.ro page six criteria, conditions to be able to say they had virtual autism.
The last one is the child has recovered to a functional level where they no longer need therapy and almost no one from the outside can tell that the child has a problem anymore. So, only then do we realize that it was a form of virtual autism", explained the clinical psychologist.
PHOTO: freepik.com @rawpixel.com
Marius Zamfir emphasized that pure virtual autism is rare. The clinical psychologist suggested that with knowledge about the neuropsychophysiological development of a child and the influence of genetic factors, this intense exposure to screens could be one of the causes of virtual autism, even though this can never be conclusively proven. He used the analogy of the question "which came first: the chicken or the egg?" to underscore the complexity of the situation.
"Pure virtual autism is very rare. In clinical cases, we've had situations where the parent would say, 'I brought the baby home from the maternity ward, got a tablet stand, and from that moment on, non-stop, whether at the bathroom or the table, the child was glued to a screen.'
Here, I could clearly say, knowing the genetic mode of neuropsychophysiological development of a child, I can clearly say that this could be one of the causes, even though we can never prove it! It's exactly like that question: 'Which came first: the chicken or the egg?'
At the moment, we don't have any medical tool to confirm the diagnosis of autism. Ultimately, if the child no longer exhibits the behavior, it means they no longer have that disorder, as long as it's diagnosed solely through clinical observation and recording of behaviors", said the president of the Association for Child Mental Health.
Marius Zamfir emphasized that in the case of virtual autism, a clear indicator is excessive screen consumption. He explained that protocols involve identifying triggers, conducting initial assessments, initiating therapy, and progress in therapy is essential for confirming the diagnosis.
"In clear cases of virtual autism, we observe high screen consumption. We eliminate triggers, conduct an initial assessment – that's the protocol – and begin therapy, and only this rate of recovery can tell us.
My study concluded that in children who have a recovery rate between 4 and 5 times faster and a coefficient 4-5 times better than in classic autism, it means that this form was present. We identified the trigger, eliminated it, and started therapy.
There may be other causes, but the cause isn't as severe there, and slowly, we can improve it and bring the child to a fairly good level of functionality.
It's good to also undergo medical tests, as we discussed in this microbiome part, because often, both factories, both the dopaminergic and the neurosynaptic, depend to a great extent on the digestive system and the raw materials received from the digestive system", Marius Zamfir further explained.
SURSA FOTO: freepik.com @ukrolenochka
Marius Zamfir detailed the six criteria for identifying virtual autism. These criteria form the basis for evaluating and confirming virtual autism and are necessary for properly determining the presence of this form of autism.
"Firstly, the child had very, very high screen consumption, at least 4-5 hours/day in the 0-2 year period.
The second criterion is to begin a recovery protocol of at least 2 hours/day, 5 days/week. After that, whoever coordinates this therapy team must have a minimum of 10 years of experience and a minimum of 100 children with virtual autism and classic autism to understand the difference in the recovery process between the two.
Then, the child reaches a level of recovery where they can be integrated into any educational system according to their chronological age, without needing specialized assistance from outside.
So, these are the criteria through which we can only say at the end, only at the end: yes, it was a form of virtual autism!" the expert further specified.
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