An International Survey of Parental Attitudes to Technology Use by Their Autistic Children at Home.

All data were parent reports, so the study did not observe the child's technology use directly. Parents who were concerned about screen time may have reported different amounts of use than parents who were not concerned, and the survey cannot separate true use from reporting bias. The survey was circulated online and advertised as a survey about technology and autism, which may have attracted families already interested in technology. The study did not compare autistic children with non-autistic children, so it cannot say whether the reported use is different from typical use. Time estimates may be confounded when a child uses several devices at once, and the survey did not compare weekdays with weekends. 30 records were excluded from age-group analysis because parent-child age differences were invalid, and analyses were run only on available data for each question. Device time estimates were based on different numbers of respondents with access to each device, so the reliability varied across devices. The attitude scale used only three items after two were removed, and the survey did not explore the meaning behind parents' concerns in depth.

Do not read the low reported use of autism-specific technology as evidence that such technology is ineffective or unnecessary. This survey described parents' reported use and attitudes at home; it did not measure communication, learning, or well-being outcomes.