TV As The Cause of Autism Study

Good article. I'm very interested, because the school district wanted to diagnose my son as autistic, and he couldn't be farther from it. Yeah, he was an "odd" child, left of center, behavior and learning problems, but not autistic! He actually never liked to watch TV as a child or now (he COULD watch the NASA channel though-which amazed me, because it's like watching grass grow). I think a lot of the "rise" in cases of autism is because it's diagnosed more now, as are ADD and ADHD. Asperger's Syndrome has only been recently diagnosed. There's big money backing people and companies who do these studies, and I'm sure they all have their own agenda.

An example given in a statistics book told of the 1 to 1 correlation of the traffic flow outside a large hospital to the rate at which babies were born. This example was used to illustrate a meaningless correlation lacking a cause and effect relationship.
These folks apparently studied another book.

Joanne makes a valid observation about the agenda of scientists studying socially disabling behavior who are on drug company payrolls.

It is my opinion many of the children diagnosed with these problems simply have not been disciplined at home and teachers and administrators do no wish to take the one on one time to help.

i think that possibly bill was talking about the adhd fad.
i agree that the definitions for adhd are rather liberally applied. for one thing, some children who are "curious" stand out from their peers but have been labeled adhd.

they have not developed tests for adhd or add or aspergers, the practitioners only use the tests they have for other stuff.

they need more definitive research than that.

i just went through testing at age 55. and i have a psych degree, so i'm familiar with the tests that were given. they documented that i have a high iq, that i have excellent problem-solving skills, that i have excellent recall of meaningless junk, lol.

they showed also that although i am right-handed, i perform better with my left hand, in tapping. so what. i'm not going to get a job tapping something. i type at around 100 wpm so i'm fine there. but the score was in the low range. and that was the only low range, everything else was very high, higher than most normal people.

but there is no test to tell that i have aspergers because it's a social thing. if you tell me a joke, i don't usually get it. if you say something and your body language or actions say something different, i don't know what to do, so i go for the literal verbal meaning. i don't discuss what kind of nail polish is best. i don't chitchat. i don't protect myself from office politics because i can't read it.

i don't network. i don't make friends well.

i just do my job, whatever it is.

they have done little research on a lot of disabilities and many people who have one also have one or two related others. you should see how they diagnose adhd. they do tests. if you are intelligent but are not performing up to this level, then they diagnose you with adhd. i don't know about you, but i didn't find k-12 extremely challenging. i was interested in stuff that was not age-appropriate, it was more adult interests. i read the newspaper at 5 years old. i liked horses and politics and words (i read the dictionary) and read a book a day. school felt like dick and jane for me. i was reading college-level stuff by sixth grade.

but i have met people with adhd for real and they do have problems doing stuff. they can't focus on things. they are here one minute and there another. people usually treat them as "flakes". they aren't respected by anyone.

the same happens with asperger people. we are nerds. only 20% of us are employed. we can do the work but no one gives us a chance. we sometimes get involved too much in the detail of stuff and can't finish because the project gets smaller and smaller rather than progressing.

none of these things are definitive.
they are only recently starting to stumble across some brain activity stuff where aspies and autistic people show differences from the normal population.

yeah, in my own situation, they're gonna give me voc rehab. i have an appointment about it tomorrow.

i have 3 degrees. will they come up with an $8/hour job for me?

my recommendations are that i get on some anti-depressants and anti-anxiety pills. the anti-depressants might help me quit smoking so i'm fine with that. but i think my lack of income causes the depression and anxiety.

i'm down here in arizona and i feel like moving home with my family. and i'm 55 years old. they're in washington state. i love it up there but the weather is awful and wet and i have difficulty with that.

My son has 2 year old twins. One is very advanced for her age and knows her alphabet, colors, numbers, how to spell her name, etc. The other has "sensory issues" and possible autism. He can't chew and eat table food well yet. He does the hand flapping when he is excited. He says very few words. The twins have had excellent parenting and my son is a special education teacher with a master's degree. The twins were raised the same with every advantage. Its obvious that the one twin had something different about him since birth. He is going to special preschool classes to try to catch him up with other kids verbally and in other ways.
His intelligence seems to be normal.

janet, i think you are right. he probably has autism because he seems to have delayed language stuff.

that's the difference with aspergers. i talked early and i related to adults. i wasn't a kid like other kids were kids. in fact, i didn't really have a childhood. it was more like a little adult-hood, lol.

I find this article "TV might cause autism" just outrageous! Why can't people accept neurological disorders for what they are? When someone has diabetes, or some other debilitating disease we don't blame it on time TV,or diets, or what ever. We get a diagnosis, and treat the child. I was very happy to find out that my daughter was given diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome . As soon as I heard the criteria it clicked with me. I was overcome with joy. I was tired of people blaming it on me, my depression, or their view that I was a bad parent .

Basic scientific tenet:

Correlation does not imply causation.