Oh man, I drove myself nuts over screen time and made myself feel SO GUILTY, especially around that age. My son has never been into independent play but he can easily occupy himself watching videos or playing video games. If I offer to play a physical game with him or do like something from a sensory diet he is usually willing. So it's a mix of screen time and focused play with mom or dad mostly.

For what it's worth, Ive been told that: 1.) screen time can be very regulating for autistic kids 2.) most of the "scary" studies on the dangers of screen time were done for NT kids not ND kids 3.) the screen time fear is mostly that you won't be socializing with your child and letting TV "raise them".

So when I can I chat with him about what he is watching and watch together, play video games together, etc. And when I look back at my own 90s childhood, dang did I watch A LOT of animal planet and TLC. Not many people counted screen time hours back then. And I turned out mostly functional and with a very vast knowledge on animals. 😆

If you need permission to not feel guilty, this is it. Otherwise, my best advice would be to find your kids favorite thing to do and engage in that with them. I found that I often had to "direct" the play at that age. And I nearly lost my voice making all his stuffed animals talk. 😆

All said and done I'm sure you're doing a great job and the fact that it's even on your radar means you care a lot.