Daily parent-child play at age 12 months was significantly associated with fewer ASD-like symptoms at age 2 years (change −8.9% 95% CI −16.5% to −0.9%) compared with less than daily play. Television or video viewing when babies were 12 months old was significantly associated with greater ASD-like symptoms at age 2 years (change 4.2%, 95% CI 0.1%-8.3%), compared with no screen viewing. The study also collected data about the risk of ASD and ASD-like symptoms when children were age 2, measured by the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers ( M-CHAT) or revised M-CHAT. Caregivers reported whether their child viewed television and/or videos (yes or no) at age 12 months, hours of viewing at age 18 months, and frequency of playing with the child (daily or less than daily) at age 12 months. multicenter study of children enrolled at birth from 2010 to 2012. In their study, Bennett and colleagues used data on 2,152 children from the National Children's Study (NCS) archive. "Screen viewing during infancy has been found to cause increased specialization of brain pathways involved in the processing of audiovisual stimuli in a non-social manner, which can compete with and negatively affect social processing pathways." But there are ways screens may raise autism symptom risk, he noted. Whether screen viewing and lack of social engagement lead to autism symptoms or are simply correlates of autism symptoms is not clear, Bennett added. "The findings highlight the possibility that environmental factors in the first year of life - specifically, playing with one's child regularly and avoiding screens - could decrease the risk of autism symptoms at age 2 years," he told MedPage Today. "This is the first prospective study to examine screen viewing at such an early age - 12 months - and later autism symptoms, to our knowledge," Bennett said. While the study demonstrated associations between these activities and autism-like symptoms, it did not show a link with ASD risk, the researchers noted.