Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

TV & Autism?

October17

(Julie ^ no inhaler needed today.)
There has been a lot of research and speculation in recent years about why there has been an increase in the occurrences of autism.  The occurrence of autism has increased 800% since the 1980s.  Many are demanding to know why and parents are trying to discover if there are things they can do to prevent the onset of autism in their own children.

Some feel that we’ve simply gotten better at diagnosing it.  Autism and its subsets were added to the DSM III in the 80’s so perhaps it hasn’t increased, we’ve just learned more about it.  Others theorize that the rising age of new parents may be a contributing factor.  (There has been a study showing men over 40 are more likely to father an autistic child than men younger than 30.)  Still others suggest that the lower infant mortality rate may be responsible – prior to our advances in medicine weaker children may not have survived long enough to develop autism.

Others are fearful that our society has triggered the onset of autism with the vaccinations we inject.  Until it was phased out 5 years ago, there was a form of mercury found in children’s vaccinations.  After further research, many feel that it has been proved there is no causal relationship between the vaccinations and autism if for no other reason than there has been no decline in the occurrence of autism since the mercury was removed from the vaccines.  Some still aren’t satisfied.  (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-07-06-autism_x.htm for a recent article on this debate.)

An interesting theory has been discussed recently in quiet tones.  These people feel TV may cause autism in young children.  It’s an interesting theory.  Advocates of this theory state that the dramatic rise in autism occurred about the same time as the availability of cable television in many communities.  These people argue that humans brains organize during the first few years of life and normally do so from observing 3-D stimuli around them but that TV bombards young children with colorful and fast moving 2-D stimuli which interferes with the way the brain develops.  A paper on this theory has recently been posted on Cornell University’s website.  I haven’t read the entire paper (it’s 67 pages long) but I have to wonder why it is posted on the website and has not been published in a journal.  (http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/waldman/autpaper.html select download paper from site 1 or site 2 following the authors’ names.)

Throwing this out there for discussion.  Curious to hear the thoughts of others.

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