Virtual Autism
What Happens When the Screens Go Off
Late one night, a parent typed a question about their own daughter into a search box. Among the results was a parents’ forum, where a stranger used two words they had never met: “virtual autism.” The phrase is not a diagnosis, and this book never presents it as one.
Virtual Autism is the book that parent went looking for and could not find. It rests on one of the most consistent findings in the science of early language: babies learn to talk by taking turns with a person who answers them. A screen cannot take a turn.
It begins with one family: a parent’s search at one in the morning, a television that went into hiding and the evaluation that parent wishes they had never tried to cancel. From there the book turns to the evidence: what the largest studies have found about screens and the youngest children, where those studies fall short, and what health authorities around the world now advise, with a country-by-country guide to more than forty countries and territories.
It names no one in its story, promises no miracle and blames no parent.
Get the book
US prices. Prices in other countries follow each store’s local pricing.
What readers will find
- A plain-language guide to the research on screens, language and early development
- The studies that complicate the story, given equal room
- A country-by-country guide to screen and school phone rules in more than forty countries and territories
- A practical plan for the first weeks with the screens off
- How to ask for an evaluation, and why to keep it even in a good week
- Letters and handouts for grandparents, caregivers and doctors