TV watching causes autism??
By cynddvs
@cynddvs (2948)
United States
May 11, 2007 11:27pm CST
While my fiance was stuck in bed because of his back he saw something on tv about autism. So naturally he starts doing research about it. There have been studies that have shown that watching too much tv at a young age could possibly be a contributing factor in autism. Especially in kids 3 and under. So as soon as he started doing this research we took the tv out of my daughters room and she no longer watches tv and when she does it's very limited. Maybe we are being paranoid but we would rather not take any chances. Here is one of the articles we read about it http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1548682,00.html .
So what do you all think about this? Do you let you kids watch tv? If so, how much tv do they watch?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@SageMother (2277)
• United States
12 May 07
Autism is a problem with a genetic basis. The only way watching tv will cause autism is if you have autism to begin with.
This is one of those examples of a correlation being turned into a cause. One could also say that drinking water that is running through pvc pipes has the same effect...that is how correlations get blown into pretty unreasonable causes for diseases and disorders.
Place th elimits on yourselves as you choose, but be careful about making those limits sound like a cure or prevention. The science isn't there to support this position.
1 person likes this
@cynddvs (2948)
• United States
12 May 07
Oh I'm not trying to say not watching tv will cure or prevent autism at all. My daughter hasn't shown any signs for us to be worried about. But I just wanted to see what everyone thought about this. I like to limit how much tv my daughter watches anyways and this just kind of gives me a little bit more of a reason to do so.
@magica (3707)
• Bulgaria
12 May 07
This is interesting hypotese, but i dont think that it`s reliable. At least there must be much more observations to be proven.
Hope this is a temporary problem with your boy, but a friendly conversation with you or even with a good terapist will be o.k
Have a nice day:-)
1 person likes this
@Foxxee (3650)
• United States
15 Sep 07
I have always heard one of the signs of autism is when your child can sit for hours and hours and watch tv. It's very odd for a young child who is like 15-20 months to just sit and watch tv all day. Most toddlers would wonder off. But a child with autism will sit and watch for hours on. In some cases. Since every autistic child is different.
As for the whole TV thing... you might have a point there. It's something to research.
I do have a son with autism and he loves TV, but sometimes I just want to trash the TV because it seems to be actually making things worse. So I will do more research, thanks.
@rapolu_cs (1184)
• India
12 May 07
I think autism is an genetically based and it is not becoz of watching tv any ways dont allow your kid to watch tv for many hours and even continuosly as it cause damage to eyes and moreover if at all she gets edicted then it becomes difficult to concentrate on her studies. All the best.
@KarenO52 (2950)
• United States
12 May 07
My kids all watched tv and they are alright. I usually had the tv on all day, and I used to put on kid's shows in the morning for them from the time they were toddlers.
Whether or not tv causes autism, it can't hurt to limit tv watching and get the kids interested in other things. I used to try to get the kids to play outside more, and they did spend a lot of time out riding bikes and playing with the dog, but I still thought at that time, that they should be out even more.
