P086 Taking a Comprehensive Approach to Investigating Screen Time and Sleep in Preschoolers With and Without Autism

Abstract Children’s screen time has increased, and the majority of children exceed recommended screen time limits. Relationships between screen time and development are reportedly mixed, but children who meet recommended guidelines for screen time, physical activity, and sleep, perform better on cognitive measures (Walsh et al., 2018). It is therefore important to incorporate sleep into investigations of screen time and child development. Sleep is important for children’s learning, memory, and behaviour, and screen time evidently disrupts sleep. Children with developmental disorders have greater sleep difficulties (Halstead et al., 2021) and longer screen times than typically developing children (Aishworiya et al., 2018) and both could compound existing developmental difficulties. We take a comprehensive approach to investigating preschoolers’ screen time and relationships with sleep, cognition, language, and behaviour. There are limited findings with preschoolers and in particular preschoolers with autism. Caregivers of typically developing children and children with or at risk for autism complete a screen time diary that incorporates content type (entertainment, educational, relaxing), engagement type (passive/interactive; with someone/solo), and time of day; and questionnaires on their child’s sleep quality, development, and behaviour. We also administer direct measures of executive function, language, and memory. Sleep is measured objectively using actigraphy and a sleep diary. If screen time disrupts sleep, does it also interact with children’s memory for new words, their cognitive and behavioural development? We present an overview of the study and the challenges faced recruiting preschoolers and some preliminary descriptive data.