The invention discloses an identification method and system for screen operation of an intelligent terminal; a plurality of distance detection modules are arranged below a screen of the intelligent terminal, and the identification method comprises the following steps: obtaining a corresponding relationship between each distance detection module and each piece of coordinate information on the screen; when at least one target object is subjected to air separation operation, detecting different target objects through different distance detection modules, and obtaining distance information betweeneach target object and a screen, wherein the target coordinate information, detected by the distance detection module, of the target object on the screen is in one-to-one correspondence with the coordinate information corresponding to the distance detection module; and according to the target coordinate information and the distance information, identifying the operation behavior of the air operation of each target object on the screen. According to the method and the device, the screen is directly operated in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction in the air operation scene, gesture actions do not need to be preset, the operation is simple, the practicability is high, and the user experience is improved.