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SN children

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Original poster

TV and Autism

38 replies

Anoah · 20/10/2006 14:38

My kid has a diagnosis of high functioning autism. My dad has just sent me an article that concludes that autism is caused when young children watch too much TV. I think it is a load of rubbish, but obviously he doesn't. My son has hardly ever watched TV.

Comments? Would love to hear from parents of autistic kids who don't have a TV so I can prove my dad and his stupid article wrong.

OP posts:

coppertop · 23/10/2006 11:18

I think said family member would be wearing the TV if they tried that one here.

BATtymumma · 23/10/2006 11:27

The thing i find most upsetting is not the fact that they are blaming us parents as lets face it, we all know what complete BS that article is.

but its the fact that there will be manymany people who have seen that and will believe what was written "it was in the paper so it must be true" [eye rolling smiley]

they will look at me and my DS as if his difficulties are preventable, if there is an easy answer to all his problems.
FFS do we not have enough to worry about?

caroline3 · 23/10/2006 11:28

yeah I like that. The sort of family members that wld say it are the ones you only see every so often. No point in complaining as they would just say you were being over sensitive. Most of them just think ds is a bit eccentric...

caroline3 · 23/10/2006 11:31

I've noticed they often have bs articles in the ST like this one. There was one a few weeks ago saying that the more beautiful you are the more intelligent you are likely to be. Que for excuse to publish a few pictures of glamorous girls waving bits of paper around...

Rosyspookily · 23/10/2006 11:37

The sort of family members who would say it are probably a bit tactless, eccentric and undiagnosed!!! If the cause was so simple it would be brilliant news, we could all get rid of the tv. I'm sure most people reading that know fine rightly its shite but it just niggles away.

Rosyspookily · 23/10/2006 12:17

My mum is always coming up with these ideas but she does mean well!

Pixel · 23/10/2006 15:58

I read about this in the paper today. Apparently it's all based on the idea that in areas where it rains more there is more autism, and because it is raining more people are likely to be inside watching television, so therefore it must be the television causing the autism. Well how scientific! What about the rain itself then? Could it be that in rainier areas you are more likely to get wet and just maybe the rain is full of something nasty on this polluted planet of ours? (Not that I'm saying it's that, any more than the television. Just another example of how this 'research' could have been read).

My ds is like many others and doesn't actually 'watch' tv. He will play the same bit of a dvd over and over but it is more about the repetition and having control over it than what is on the screen. He used to do much the same with toy trains (pushing them through a tunnel over and over) when he was younger but now he's discovered modern technology takes much less effort!

snuggles3 · 28/10/2006 12:04

Thats a load of rubbish. But the only thing i will say on the subject of television is my ds who has asd, wants to want watch the same tracktor tom dvd over and over again, and i admitt i have been giving into him and letting him watch it too much, since then his behaviour has been worse he is really irritable and screaming/tantruming more. So i have stopped it.

Homsa · 28/10/2006 20:28

Just to give a different angle. My ds, who is autistic, has been watching the same Sign and Sign DVD over and over, and he has just started singing along to pretty much all of the songs!!! This is a boy who was basically non-verbal just a few months ago, so it's a huge step for him. His speech is just starting to take off as well. I'm not saying this is because of watching tv, but I do think that listening to the same songs repeatedly has helped a bit. A CD wouldn't have had quite the same effect, as he wouldn't have learnt what the words he's singing actually mean.

Jimjams2 · 28/10/2006 20:38

pmsl pixel- that's hilarious. Is it high in the Amazon there (perhaps they all go inside during the daily rain to watch TV). Anyway we go out more when it rains (outside) because its quieter so ds1 watches more tv when its hot (and crowded in public spaces). What a load of bollards!

Jimjams2 · 28/10/2006 20:39

pmsl pixel- that's hilarious. Is it high in the Amazon then? (perhaps they all go inside during the daily rain to watch TV). Anyway we go out more when it rains (outside) because its quieter so ds1 watches more tv when its hot (and crowded in public spaces). What a load of bollards!

snuggles3 · 28/10/2006 21:41

It would make my day if ds1 would start singing the tracktor tom theme. Thats really good that its worked for your ds homsa, I might try getting ds into some more educational dvds. I have got a nursery rhyme Makaton dvd.

Pixel · 28/10/2006 23:59

The latest study, in the U.S., looked at whether there was a link between rising rates of autism and the increasing availability of children's TV, videos and DVDs.

The research team concluded that the results were "awfully suggestive" of a link between watching TV and autism.

As they were unable to obtain any statistics on toddlers' TV habits, they used rainfall levels in different parts of the country to help estimate how much time children spent playing outdoors.

They found that the wettest areas, where, presumably, children spent more time indoors watching TV, had the highest rates of autism.

Dr Michael Waldman, who led the study, said: "We ran the tests a number of different ways, and basically, every way we run it, we get the same thing. If it rains more, autism goes up. If it rains less autism goes down."

That's from the Mail Online site if you want to read the rest. To be fair there is some stuff about cable tv as well but it's hard to take it seriously once you've read the above.

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