iPad air screen touch response stuttering

My 4th Gen iPad air’s screen becomes unresponsive at random times. When we first bought it everything was fine, however for a few months now even when I’m touching the screen, it doesn’t respond. For example, I’ll be playing a game with a joystick in the bottom left, and as I’m holding down my finger randomly the response starts stuttering. It doesn’t just completely not register, it registers, then stops, then starts again then stops, almost like flickering? This also happens when I’m using a device pen to draw on an app called Procreate. I’ve tried using touch accommodations but it didn’t work. Its been less than a year since we’ve had this iPad so its still relatively new.

I’ve heard maybe the screen protector might be too thick? But I don’t want to remove it yet unless I’m 100% sure its the problem.