A friend recently asked me to comment on an article about a study that showed a correlation (although not causal) of TV watching and autism. There was also a more general article on TV viewing and young children found here.
I decided to post my response to her in case others are interested - with one caveat, I am not (at this moment at least) an ASD researcher and only have preliminary experience with research conducted associated with ASD. I note that my comments are what I considered informed opinions and not scientifically researched. This one day may change, but right now I am concentrating on two things: 1) getting Zach's services and therapies situated and 2) advocating for those parents who are not getting services they need. Steve and I do hope to get more involved in the research end of things eventually, as we both are technically research engineers. (I gotta tell you though, I am particularly good at "guessing" at a lot of this stuff, which is another topic.)
My response:
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Wanted to follow up to your question on my take on the autism/TV watching article. Well, I don't think that watching TV causes autism. I first and foremost believe there is a genetic predisposition to autism. I do believe there is a trigger for autism, but in our case, I am fairly certain it wasn't TV - we barely watched it for his first 18 months, and we don't have cable so we don't fit that mold. Cornell has also found a correlation of rain fall and autism as mentioned in that article. Does rain cause autism? Highly unlikely. However, there is something important to be gleaned from this information. I think the hypothesis of the children spending more time indoors is a good start.
I absolutely, 100% believe there is an environmental trigger to my son's autism. There are different "types" of autism so to speak, and my son was developing, what appears to be normally, and lost functionality (most notable his speech, eye contact, and ability to point). For children who are afflicted with autism that have this sort of regressive type, I feel that something in their environment pulled the trigger on engaging the genetic predisposition. Autism varies so much from one child to the next, no two kids are alike. I believe that the causes for regressive autism are likely varied as well: food allergies for some, vaccine intolerance for others, other allergies to chemicals, perhaps even a mild head injury that was one too many.
Many kids on the spectrum are extreme visual thinkers; they have photographic memories that are very intense - like watching a movie, and don't recall things verbally like most neurotypical people do. TV may stimulate this method of thinking and make the nontypical development more obvious, not more frequent. Just my guess for right now.
I am not a big fan of plopping a kid in front of a TV, although I have no particular problem with the medium, but more the content. I HATE advertisements. That's why we mostly do PBS and videos at our house. They aren't trying to sell you something, and pure entertainment is not the theme, there is usually something educational in the content. No fluff - a waste of life's precious time!
My very long $0.02!
1 comment:
Thanks for your detailed response. I think autism is the next breast cancer - a lot more research is done in the past 10 years, and it sounds like we are getting closer to understanding its causes. From my reading on the subject (and I admit that I haven't read nearly as much about it as you did), I agree that it most likely has both genetic and environmental components. My hope for you and for other families with kids on the spectrum is that therapies will be found to fight its symptoms and help these children grow into healthy and functional adults. I admire your battle to get the best services for Zach, and it sounds like he is making good progress. I am sending you positive thoughts from CA!
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