Sensory Effects of Occupational Therapy in Children with Screen Exposure

Abstract

As technology has improved, mobile device use has increased in younger age groups and the time of screen exposure has increased. Screen exposure has many negative effects on children's development. Being in front of the screen for a long time causes attention deficit, speech problems, sensory-motor problems, behavioral and emotional problems in children. Many factors can be effective in increasing screen exposure. Family comes first among these factors. Situations such as family members' occupations, income status, and the number of members in the family affect mobile device use, while mobile device use affects screen exposure time. One of the important effects of screen exposure is the lack of stimulus or negative stimulus. Exposure of children to negative stimuli, especially between the ages of 0-6, when neuroplasticity is the fastest, causes developmental delays. Lack of stimulus prevents children's senses from working in a systematic way. Senses that begin to develop in the womb are negatively affected by screen exposure and sensory integration problems are seen in children. Occupational therapists aim to adapt children with sensory integration problems to daily life with meaningful and purposeful activities, and accordingly, they evaluate the child individually and create and implement an individual therapy program.