The effect of passive video and television watching duration on 2- to 5-year-old children with autism was investigated in the largest and the longest observational study to date. Parents assessed the development of 3227 children quarterly for three years. Longer video and television watching were associated with better development of expressive language but significantly impeded development of complex language comprehension. On an annualized basis, low TV users (low quartile: 40 min or less of videos and television per day) improved their language comprehension 1.4 times faster than high TV users (high quartile: 2 h or more of videos and television per day). This difference was statistically significant. At the same time, high TV users improved their expressive language 1.3 times faster than low TV users. This difference was not statistically significant. No effect of video and television watching duration on sociability, cognition, or health was detected.
Keywords: ASD; autism; language comprehension; language delay; receptive language; screen time; television time.