Autism and T.V.

It would certainly be nice if they could actually find a reason why some children end up having autism.

i dont really know enough about autism to say much - i do know several people who deal with autism in their children. one of the things that occurs to me with that article is that the tv watching may support a continuance of something that that is already in a child - or perhaps is a phase that a child might pass through in normal developement without tv around.

as you say you noticed something about your child before he was watching TV. might it be possible that what you noticed became anchored by tv in this way: tv jumps in no real pattern of logic from one program to another - all day and night long. - so, connecting between programs or commercials (which jump in with no pattern as well and no relationship to the progam either) is not necessary.

if the child transfers that pattern to the world around us, you have the limited brain connections not being necessary. no pattern of continuity is necessary to participate in life.

if a child might normally go through a phase of mind organizing development that is non-connectional it is possible that in the real world this would get straightened out - evaluated and switched off as a way of functioning in the real world. this moment of life, leads to that moment of life and is connected through out the day in logical ways. but if the tv pattern becomes the pattern of life then logic isnt necessarily involved in moving from one moment to the next in life and there for not needed. if the brain follows that pattern as a path at a time of development which becomes the pattern for life - is that the pattern of thinking and being involved in life that a child/adult with autism operates with as a way of thinking - a mind pattern of thinking.

if that gets set - locked into place - does it become the way the mind operates from then on??? just a thought that occurred to me as i read.

It is said that people with Autism are visual thinkers, Dr. Temple Grandin described it as thinking in pictures...so it would make sense that if they are predisposed to have autism they would be drawn to the T.V.
i wonder if there is any way to actually research this theory...

if children with autism are visual thinkers it makes a lot of sense to me that they latch onto a pattern of visual thinking at some point in their development - if that pattern is television based... rather than real world based... they may be adapting to what makes sense to them and applying that way of thought/thinking to all of their world. - later it may be difficult to switch from that way.

you might be able to write to places that do research on autism and ask your research questions and issues. i know there are organizations/institutes that keep a lot of life data - like medical data and activity data on individuals - and have been doing so for years - which i would think would be a great asset to looking into this kind of thing - (hospitals, doctors, - the health industry).

if a research group could form a question appropriate to this particular theory and then seek permission to access data from the health industry there might be some clues that would parrallel the timing much like what was being asked in that article. that in turn might shed some light on both cause and possible solutions...

I think I will look around the net and see what other information is around.
I think it would be difficult to research. It would have to be at least five hundred to one thousand children, then the odds of having a child in the study predisposed to autism, would be greater. Then of course you would have to get half of them to abstain from television! In this day and age...and also computers! But if course I don't do research for a living there may be an easier way.

I would have to disagree with blaming television for the rise in autism. There are a lot of scientific studies going on right now. They know from MRIs that the brain actually functions differently in kids with autism than with 'neuro-typical' kids. They're also narrowing down groups of genetic areas that seem to be in common in kids with autism. One of the stronger layman arguments I've heard for there being a genetic link to autism is that boys are four times more likely to have autism than girls. I subscribe to a medical newsletter through www.medicalnewstoday.com. I highly recommend it as one source for news on the latest autism research.

Thanks Noelle for the link! I definately think it is gentic, but I was wondering if T.V. hinders their brain development, even if it is developing differently. I have often thought too much t.v. hinders the attention span of a child..any child..

We actually saw a lot of positive from television with our daughter. She was (and is) very delayed in language. We got some sign language videos for kids www.signingtime.com among others. The repetition, and the combination of music, hearing the word, seeing the word printed on the screen, seeing the sign and trying the sign herself, together made something click in her brain. I don't know where we would be without the kind of input she was able to get through television.

Here's something else I've been told contributes to kids with autism liking television. The world can be a very chaotic place for these kids. Their brains are processing things differently, things may seem to be happening too fast, and things are unpredictable with real people. With television they have a medium (with a video) where they can have the comfort of repetition (always knowing what's going to happen next) and they can control the pace (pausing and rewinding when needed). With some of Alissa's videos with a storyline, we use them as a visual medium to talk about feelings. We'll label what's happening with a character and talk about how it makes that person feel - we want her to get an understanding of how actions can affect the feelings of other people.

Noelle that makes sense, Jake likes certain videos more than others...and most of his speech he has echolalia(sp?)is derived from what he watches.. as he has gotten older he has turned it into functional speech..

I think T.V. can be a good learning tool especially in what you refered to about teaching how actions affect peoples feelings..

but i wonder if we as parents rely on it to much because it puts our children in that "comfort zone" when we should be expecting more?
I am always asking myself that question, am I underestimating my child?

I have to say that Alissa does more than just watch TV. In addition to what she gets from that, we red together, we do worksheets from workbooks I buy (so we're doing more than just what the school does), we do craft projects together, and we work on life skills things (like finally FINALLY getting her toilet trained), teaching her to help with dishes, teaching her about putting away the laundry when it's done, etc. I'm happy too that she usually has something else going on while she watches TV. She's definitely a multi-tasker.

I have always struggled with trying to find a balance between what are reasonable expectations and what are unfair expectations. It's tough. I don't know if she doesn't do some things because she can't do them, she doesn't understand what I'm asking, or she just doesn't feel like it (like any other kid).

I would also have to disagree with that article. I got the impression the author wasn't so much interested in the causes of autism as he was in finding something he could blame on television.
The biggest indicator that autism has a biological basis of some kind is the fact that about four times as many boys are diagnosed with it as girls. Factors like immunization shots, environmental toxins, and television are universal - everyone is exposed equally (if you look at a large ehough group, anyway). If these environmental factors were causing autism, it should be impacting boys & girls equally. It does not.
The brain activity studies are interesting, but I think the author is looking at them backwards. The changes in brain operation contribute to a fascination with television, not the other way around.

I'm an adult with high-functioning autism and I attribute a great deal of that functioning to the thousands of hours of TV I've watched over the last 30 years (as well as books and movies). Fiction has given me a mental database of actions and reactions that help me navigate the social society and non-fiction has provided me with a knowledge base that I'm able to connect together in unique ways to excel at whatever I try. The autistic mind can often see connections where NTs may have more difficulty. All it takes is finding one's niche. TV can show more possibilities in 30 minutes than shelf load of self-help books.

Thanks for commenting Carly, I believe a good deal of my sons functional speech is derived from what he watches on t.v. how he watches the characters interact.

I think Brian has a point about the article... when I first read the article I took it as another article reaching for possibilites, grasping at straws.

I actually think too much t.v. may hinder typical developing children, I think it affects their attention span. I see it in my older nt child, who has been exposed to a lot of t.v. because of his little brother with autism. But here again it is just an observation.

You say your child is interested only in programs with music. Are there other sources of music in your home? I know my son has always loved music so I sing to him (I have NO talent for singing) and sometimes he sings with me. Music is a language that speaks to everyone on an emotional basis and it can be used as a form of communication.

We have cds of a variety of music and I sing to him, but I must sing worse than you cause sometimes he will cover my mouth!

But it is definately the music that atracts him to the T.V.

I just remembered while reading these comments again that I went thru a phase for a while in early elementary school where I would change a just few of the words to commercial jingles so that they would apply to the real life situation we were in. Occasionally I'd do regular songs, but usually just commercial jingles. I'd use them in lieu of a sentance to describe what I was feeling about the current goings-on in my life. The only one I can remember right now for sure is from the song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"...I used a derivative of that for years to complain about my allergies..."All I want for Christmas is a Brand New Nose" That mimicry helped me communicate when I was going thru an isolationary phases or perhapz just wanted people to listen.