A heartwarming story about teens with Autism at UCLA.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/west/view.bg?articleid=1192799&srvc=rss
Pay attention to the social ins and outs discussed.
The article is personal and talks with and about the teens growing up with Autism.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Baby Einstein gives evidence...
-Baby Einstein gives evidence that
Early Childhood Television is related to Autism Epidemic-
I was walking with a friend, months ago, and among the topics we discussed, we landed briefly on the Baby Einstein video-learning products. I had probably mentioned to my friend that my sister, who had recently married, was pregnant. As we walked, my friend, whose name is Steve, said something to the effect of, “Did you here about those Baby Einstein videos, that they’re showing little kids and infants? Well, they’re not working, in fact they gave a bunch kids Autism.” So I listened, and gave a concerned call to my sister in Virginia, and told her what my friend had said. I didn’t give the Baby Einstein warning much thought afterwards and thought briefly that maybe too many facts crammed into a kid’s brain and not enough freedom for creative exploring could have something to do with the Baby Einstein and Autism correlation. But here is what Time magazine reported in August of 2007:
The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of
a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than
the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such
as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these
products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay
language development in toddlers.
Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University
of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent
watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new
vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products
had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age
at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched,
the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10%
lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."
And the other day, my girlfriend Claire reminded me of the Baby Einstein videos and that reminded of what my friend Steve had said about Baby Einstein videos causing Autism for children, and how that would be putting a child in front of t.v. even more than usual. Again here is what the Time magazine article from August of 2007 reported:
As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that
baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. "There
is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better," he says. "But
that's not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation." His group has
found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention
spans later in life. "Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation,
and view that as normal," says Christakis, "and by comparison, reality is
boring."
He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will
continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of
life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is
meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the
newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to
them; they're listening.
My friend Steve’s warning, from months ago, suddenly made a lot more sense and I think that word of mouth will be a very important tool for, Lord willing, Autism prevention, and creates quite an interesting discussion about the possible connection between early childhood television watching and the current Autism epidemic.
Citations from:
"Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All"
By Alice Park
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html
Early Childhood Television is related to Autism Epidemic-
I was walking with a friend, months ago, and among the topics we discussed, we landed briefly on the Baby Einstein video-learning products. I had probably mentioned to my friend that my sister, who had recently married, was pregnant. As we walked, my friend, whose name is Steve, said something to the effect of, “Did you here about those Baby Einstein videos, that they’re showing little kids and infants? Well, they’re not working, in fact they gave a bunch kids Autism.” So I listened, and gave a concerned call to my sister in Virginia, and told her what my friend had said. I didn’t give the Baby Einstein warning much thought afterwards and thought briefly that maybe too many facts crammed into a kid’s brain and not enough freedom for creative exploring could have something to do with the Baby Einstein and Autism correlation. But here is what Time magazine reported in August of 2007:
The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of
a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than
the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such
as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these
products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay
language development in toddlers.
Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University
of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent
watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new
vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products
had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age
at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched,
the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10%
lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."
And the other day, my girlfriend Claire reminded me of the Baby Einstein videos and that reminded of what my friend Steve had said about Baby Einstein videos causing Autism for children, and how that would be putting a child in front of t.v. even more than usual. Again here is what the Time magazine article from August of 2007 reported:
As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that
baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. "There
is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better," he says. "But
that's not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation." His group has
found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention
spans later in life. "Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation,
and view that as normal," says Christakis, "and by comparison, reality is
boring."
He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will
continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of
life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is
meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the
newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to
them; they're listening.
My friend Steve’s warning, from months ago, suddenly made a lot more sense and I think that word of mouth will be a very important tool for, Lord willing, Autism prevention, and creates quite an interesting discussion about the possible connection between early childhood television watching and the current Autism epidemic.
Citations from:
"Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All"
By Alice Park
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
I grew up with TV and I don't have Autism!
Autism is an epidemic, 1 in 150 kids in the United States are diagnosed along the Autism spectrum. Yet there are 149 other people out there who do not have Autism, may not even be diagnosed with ADHD, and may not even be diagnosed with other major social development disorders!
So those, roughly, 149 other people could rightly tell me, "I grew up with TV and I don't have Autism!" True.
Then why the correlation between TV and Autism? And if early childhood television watching is an impetus for Autism, then why do some boys and girls get Autism and not others? Why them? Why not me? And why wouldn't I get Autism now?
Well, I think it's like a lot of other disorders and maladies. Some people are affected by a disorder and other people are not.
Some maladies and disorders seem to more universally effect people, but others don't.
Take asthma for example, children may grow up in a smoking household and one child develops asthma while her sister doesn't develop asthma.
Children who grew up in areas where air pollution effected their lungs may or may not develop asthma. And so on with with other disorders and maladies like: high cholestoral, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and even something usually far less sever and more temporary like catching a cold.
People have predispositions to certain conditions like Autism or Asthma. And there can be various factors involved: genetics or diet or even certain times in our life.
Autism is now diagnosed by age three. Sometimes many of the various factors as to why a person has a certain malady are clear. Other times it is unsure why one person is predisposed to a certain condition.
But even when that is the case, we can still notice our relationships and noticing these relationships can help.
The relationship between a developing child under the age of three and the massive growth of cable television over the last forty years, and the increasing exposure that kids have to VCR's, dvd's, and kid's programming... and television shows in general. This is a relationship, between baby and TV.
And early childhood television watching does not have to be the only impetus for Autism, other factors are possibly influential.
But the epidemic growth of Autism does make many concerned parents and children alike wonder, "What relationships are influencing kids growing up with Autism and is there a possible prevention?"
When a young child, an infant, who isn’t as exposed to other harmful environmental factors and at least, the child's physical stages of development are being passed through okay, then what's influencing the epidemic growth of Autism? Basically, a young child could be having a relationship with a television that effects their mental development.
Who we hang out with effects how we are, when a child watches television, the way the television relates back to the child is different than a normal human relationship and the TV presents reality differently to a developing child’s mind.
Affecting the child's social development differently than the boy or girl would experience when the TV is off.
So those, roughly, 149 other people could rightly tell me, "I grew up with TV and I don't have Autism!" True.
Then why the correlation between TV and Autism? And if early childhood television watching is an impetus for Autism, then why do some boys and girls get Autism and not others? Why them? Why not me? And why wouldn't I get Autism now?
Well, I think it's like a lot of other disorders and maladies. Some people are affected by a disorder and other people are not.
Some maladies and disorders seem to more universally effect people, but others don't.
Take asthma for example, children may grow up in a smoking household and one child develops asthma while her sister doesn't develop asthma.
Children who grew up in areas where air pollution effected their lungs may or may not develop asthma. And so on with with other disorders and maladies like: high cholestoral, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and even something usually far less sever and more temporary like catching a cold.
People have predispositions to certain conditions like Autism or Asthma. And there can be various factors involved: genetics or diet or even certain times in our life.
Autism is now diagnosed by age three. Sometimes many of the various factors as to why a person has a certain malady are clear. Other times it is unsure why one person is predisposed to a certain condition.
But even when that is the case, we can still notice our relationships and noticing these relationships can help.
The relationship between a developing child under the age of three and the massive growth of cable television over the last forty years, and the increasing exposure that kids have to VCR's, dvd's, and kid's programming... and television shows in general. This is a relationship, between baby and TV.
And early childhood television watching does not have to be the only impetus for Autism, other factors are possibly influential.
But the epidemic growth of Autism does make many concerned parents and children alike wonder, "What relationships are influencing kids growing up with Autism and is there a possible prevention?"
When a young child, an infant, who isn’t as exposed to other harmful environmental factors and at least, the child's physical stages of development are being passed through okay, then what's influencing the epidemic growth of Autism? Basically, a young child could be having a relationship with a television that effects their mental development.
Who we hang out with effects how we are, when a child watches television, the way the television relates back to the child is different than a normal human relationship and the TV presents reality differently to a developing child’s mind.
Affecting the child's social development differently than the boy or girl would experience when the TV is off.
Autism Prevention Letter
Dear Sir,
The reason that I’m contacting you, Mr. Jones is because you and your wife are parents who have dealt with Autism on both a research level and personal level; that’s encouraging to me because you don’t just see figures and information; you see people and their lives. Being interested in Autism research and people’s lives as well, I would like to share with you some of the insights that I have been having into Autism prevention, ideas which came about from others research and hard-work, but as I have been trained in critical thinking and analysis, I have been connecting a couple of the dots from Autism research and from the field. These were some of the ideas that I shared with a friend, Dr. Walt Combs, and ideas that I would like to share with you as well.
I was walking with a friend, months ago, and among the topics we discussed, we landed briefly on the Baby Einstein video-learning products. I had probably mentioned to my friend that my sister, who had recently married, was pregnant. As we walked, my friend Steve said something to the effect of, “Did you here about those Baby Einstein videos, that they’re showing little kids and infants? Well, they’re not working, in fact they gave a bunch kids Autism.” So I listened, and gave a concerned call to my sister in Virginia, and told her what my friend had said. I didn’t give the Baby Einstein warning much thought afterwards and thought briefly that maybe too many facts crammed into a kid’s brain and not enough freedom for creative exploring could have something to do with the Baby Einstein and Autism correlation.
Well, months passed and the Baby Einstein comment faded. I did have discussions with my girlfriend, as well as her parents, about autism because her parents’ nineteen year old son, Gregory Smith, has grown up with high-functioning Autism. The discussions gave a lot of insight into the life of parents growing up with an Autistic child. From public schooling, to more specialized classes, and then to home schooling, many students saw the differences in Gregory Smith as he grew up with Autism and teachers were able to record the nuances of Autistic symptoms in Gregory Smith’s life. My girlfriend’s parents have learned a lot about treating Autism and helping their son Greg live life, they have given a lot to their son Greg and to the Autism community. My girlfriend’s mom, Sherril, worked with combative children who were diagnosed along the Autism spectrum and my girlfriend’s dad, Bob, is a trained psychologist who works at Riverside Adult School. My girlfriend’s mom is a trained anthropologist, and both Bob and Sherril spent time in Egypt doing anthropological studies and they have been doing the more than full time work of raising two children.
Since my girlfriend’s parents are well-versed in Autism research, I would ask my girlfriend’s parents about possible causes of Autism, but the research had given answers that were vague at best. There was mention of genetics and mention of vaccines, but nothing that seemed to substantially correlate with the symptoms of Autism or the fact that Autism is not medically testable the way diabetes or high cholesterol are, and Autism has to do with brain development. (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en).
Honestly, I think to limit the research just to genetics or just to environmental factors would be short-changing Autism research. When I think of, for example, Asthma, there are definitely environmental factors like: cigarettes, coal factories, smog and other air pollutants that serve as an impetus for Asthma, but there also seems to be a disposition to Asthma in certain individuals that causes one child who grew up in a smoking household to have asthma and another child in the same household to not have that same predisposition to asthma. So let’s not make it a competition of genetics versus environmental factors, but put them on the same team, so that they can compete together for Autism prevention. This allows us to explore environmental factors and to investigate why certain individuals are more predisposed to Autism. Why one sibling has Autism and the other sibling does not have autism.
Admitting that finding why one family member has a certain disorder and another does not have same that disorder, has proven to be helpful research at times, but in other cases the predisposition remains a mystery. So, since the gene theory of Autism is currently, at best unsure whether it is one gene or the interaction of many genes that serves as a predisposition and/or cause, and environmental factors, such as vaccines are “strongly suspected” at best, then I believe an important step in understanding the cause(s) of autism is to be practical (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en). As there are practical treatments available, such as at your Wellness Center, then what practical preventions are there? What practical correlations can we make with the symptoms of Autism and the epidemic rate at which Autism is spreading?
There are three main aspects that I will focus on: the first is environmental factors, the second is the symptoms and behaviors of an Autistic child, and the third aspect is the interests of young Autistic children. All three aspects tie together and make a strong case for at least attempting, no-cost prevention, and a safe reason to raise awareness on this practical level, to fight an epidemic that needs prevention awareness on a practical plane.
The first aspect, environmental factors, is one that I would like to explain practically. We live in surroundings; we sleep in houses, walk in parks, and talk with people around us. How often we walk, who we talk with, what we watch and read effect how we develop and what we think. If you hang out with people long enough, they influence you; humans are big on relationships: our relationship with God, our relationship with people in general (souls, human nature, and such), our relationship with the weather, our relationship with our friends and family, and our relationship with television effects us, effects our children.
As a nation, our relationship with television has grown exponentially over the past forty years. In the 1970’s cable television was on the rise, in the late 1970’s and early 80’s the VCR became mass produced, and in the early eighties children’s programming began gaining popularity (Waldman, “Does Television Cause Autism?” Pg 11-12.).
In the 1970’s Autism grew 30%, and in the 80’s the amount of people with Autism doubled, and doubled again in the 1990’s (Waldman, “Does Television Cause Autism?” Pg 11); now Autism is an epidemic (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en) and at the forefront of many parents lives as they care for children within the Autism spectrum and children with ADHD effects the day to day lives of American parents and their children.
Now this correlation seems like an interesting relationship, but needs more backing to go from a correlation to a strong correlation, and even to a connection.
There are statistics in this letter (such as the previous stats) which I received from a paper, by Michael Waldman of Cornell University, called “Does Television Cause Autism?” The reason that this relationship is of special interest is the practical sense that it makes. As we look at the developmental relationship of Autism as it is currently being compared with vaccines and air pollution, we do not need to dismiss those factors, but we should take a closer look at what Autism could be telling us. Autism is a brain developmental disorder, not a physical developmental disorder. So when we look at Asthma, we connect the lungs with air-pollution. With Autism it would make sense (and would not have to be definitive, other factors are possibly influential) that a young child, an infant, who isn’t as exposed to other harmful environmental factors, or at least as the physical stages of development are being passed through fine, this young child could have a relationship with a television that effects the child’s mental development. Why? Because who we hang out with effects how we are, if a child doesn’t have people around to develop language with, they won’t develop relational language until they are around other people who are talking to them, and even then it will be difficult to ascertain this relational speech. In the same way, when a child watches television, the way the television relates back to the child is different than normal human interaction and presents reality differently to a developing child’s mind than they would experience when the t.v. is off.
This relational account between the child and television largely accounts for, in a practical way, the Autism epidemic and for the child’s brain development being affected apart from the child’s physical development. This is a possible impetus that makes a strong connection from t.v. to mind, the way air pollution to lung would make a strong connection with an Asthma patient.
Waldman’s test include records from California, which has the longest running records for Autism in the U.S., Waldman surveys places where it rains more and where as other factors were able to be removed- young children watching more television because of rain was correlated, and Waldman also looks at the Amish- who are not experiencing an Autism epidemic. Waldman admits that it could be genetic isolation, but it still serves as strong evidence of the relationship that the young Amish children are not having with television in their community. Waldman cites how the appearance of Nickelodeon in the late ‘70’s and the Disney channel in the early ‘80’s along with the VCR in the early ‘80’s is strong evidence of the rise children’s programming and videos being a relational factor for more and more children with brain development disorders in the Autism spectrum (Waldman, “Does Television Cause Autism?” Pg 11-12.).
Next, in a unrelated article about Autism by Todd McPherson, entitled “Autism rising at alarming, epidemic rate,” an article whose information has also been helpful and I have been using thus far, is an article which seeks to describe Autism, and mention possible gene, vaccine, and chemicals as factors that have been explored, the article describes symptoms clearly and concisely. McPherson says “Autism is best described as a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication,” and the impairing of social interaction, like impaired language acquisition because a child was without other people to talk with, is related to strong social influence of the television, preventing the human relationships from breaking through to the child as they normally would, without the t.v. providing an alternative social development. This helps explain
why it is 1 girl for every 4 boys that have Autism (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en), girls tend to multitask better (and this does not need to be argued culturally), but the female, created to be able to be to multi-task with one or with many children and various other tasks at the same time, and the difference with boys who tend to focus more on specific projects, and tend to focus on more narrow pursuits; this would explain why boys have a much higher tendency towards Autism than girls, and the explanation is practical, as well as biological and how those biological dispositions affect interaction in the environment.
The McPherson article goes on to say that, “As those with Autism become toddlers it becomes more apparent that they use much less eye contact, imitate their parents less, may not wave goodbye or hello, and fail to learn to take turns and communicate nonverbally.” Practically, we can go and look at someone who has been watching t.v. for a sustained period of time and try asking them questions from the other room, or engaging them in conversation while they watch t.v., or see if they look to watch us as we leave; we know that some people will interact normally, but we also know that many times these symptoms of Autism are produced in a much more temporary manner, by those who’s brains developed normally. Also in a relationship with t.v., the relationship is very one sided, the infant or child under three is not encouraged to talk back to the t.v., imitation or interaction isn’t encouraged in the normal developmental pattern of person to person or of the normal baby exploring the environment around them, rather the child absorbs a much more limited environment that discourages normal human interaction. What t.v. does encourage is absorbing a lot of information, which Autistic children often do, and verbal Autistic children and adults are known to talk at, not with other people, the way a t.v. talks at and not with people. So t.v. hampers the social development and encourages information absorption for the child.
McPherson describes more developmental symptoms, “As children they frequently display many forms of repetitive or restricted behaviour.” The repetitive and the restrictive behavior fit in with what has been discussed so far, the restrictive behavior mirrors the restricted mental developmental growth that the t.v. offers, versus having a interaction with other people or being free to explore their surroundings. The repetitive behavior also mirrors the televisions’ behaviors with consistent commercial breaks, ritual times and days of television programs, an unmatched consistency compared to many variables in life, but far less personal than many other variables in life.
Lastly, as my girlfriend has witnessed her brother Greg grow up with Autism, Greg, and my girlfriend has also has been working with Autistic children in northern Riverside County for the last several weeks, working one on one with Autistic children at various locations: school, home, day camps and she has been receiving hands on training, learning terms and implementing methods of working with the kids. My girlfriend, Claire Smith, says that it is tough work, but the kids are very cute and she enjoys interacting with them. Claire has been telling me over the last several weeks what many of their interests are, and there is one common theme: entertainment. Claire even said that one child was writing “entertainment” over and over again on the board. The theme is entertainment and the tool is television and dvds; the kids will quote movie lines and even quote “Coming Soon to dvd!” They will say lines from movies or be interested in movie companies and the children will find their interests from that source, it seems to be a strong correlation, even a connection that t.v. is the impetus for the brain development disorder of Autism and possibly even ADHD. To clarify, I’m not saying that anyone who is interested in t.v. and movies has Autism or ADHD; it is when t.v. impairs their mental and social development (as with Autism) or impairs their relational concentration ability (as with ADHD) that I’m concerned with, as Autism and ADHD are a concern to many Americans and many people worldwide.
Now the kids will find other obsessions that, as far as I know, often stem from television, for example, from an obsession or interest in Thomas the Train Engine, an obsession or strong interest in trains, so the interest does not need to stay television, but this is strongly evidenced to be a disorder who’s epidemic growth’s impetus is early childhood television watching. This does not need be the only cause of Autism, there could be various other current factors, and various other factors that may have been an impetus, maybe a radio or various other factors involved with social developmental in the past that may have served as an impetus for Autism or Autism-like disorders before the t.v. was invented and even while the t.v. has been around it is possible that there are other strong factors influential in this disorder, but the epidemic growth, characteristics of autism, and the interests of autistic children is strongly linked to childhood television watching. The prevention is free; don’t let your child watch t.v. until they are four or five. And even if it is not the main contributor, at least children are engaging more with people around them and are exploring more of the world around them; engaging in healthy developmental relationships. Awareness is what is important for prevention.
And that is why I write to you Mr. Jones because you and your wife are parents who have dealt with Autism on both a research level and personal level; and Lord willing, I would like to hear your feedback, and hear your opinion on how to contact and reach not only the autism community, but others as well, so that there is a strong a awareness of Autism prevention for patients, people and the community. And the other day Claire reminded me of the Baby Einstein videos and that reminded of what my friend Steve had said about Baby Einstein videos causing Autism for children, and how that would be putting a child in front of t.v. even more than usual; Steve’s warning suddenly made a lot more sense and I think that word of mouth will be a very important tool for, Lord willing, Autism prevention, but I would like to run it by you first, before I go running my mouth off to too many folks and hear a professional opinion and discuss it with you before I discuss it with my girlfriend’s parents and other folks, who would be interested in this discussion.
Thank you very much for reading this-
Sincerely,
Ryan Burke
The reason that I’m contacting you, Mr. Jones is because you and your wife are parents who have dealt with Autism on both a research level and personal level; that’s encouraging to me because you don’t just see figures and information; you see people and their lives. Being interested in Autism research and people’s lives as well, I would like to share with you some of the insights that I have been having into Autism prevention, ideas which came about from others research and hard-work, but as I have been trained in critical thinking and analysis, I have been connecting a couple of the dots from Autism research and from the field. These were some of the ideas that I shared with a friend, Dr. Walt Combs, and ideas that I would like to share with you as well.
I was walking with a friend, months ago, and among the topics we discussed, we landed briefly on the Baby Einstein video-learning products. I had probably mentioned to my friend that my sister, who had recently married, was pregnant. As we walked, my friend Steve said something to the effect of, “Did you here about those Baby Einstein videos, that they’re showing little kids and infants? Well, they’re not working, in fact they gave a bunch kids Autism.” So I listened, and gave a concerned call to my sister in Virginia, and told her what my friend had said. I didn’t give the Baby Einstein warning much thought afterwards and thought briefly that maybe too many facts crammed into a kid’s brain and not enough freedom for creative exploring could have something to do with the Baby Einstein and Autism correlation.
Well, months passed and the Baby Einstein comment faded. I did have discussions with my girlfriend, as well as her parents, about autism because her parents’ nineteen year old son, Gregory Smith, has grown up with high-functioning Autism. The discussions gave a lot of insight into the life of parents growing up with an Autistic child. From public schooling, to more specialized classes, and then to home schooling, many students saw the differences in Gregory Smith as he grew up with Autism and teachers were able to record the nuances of Autistic symptoms in Gregory Smith’s life. My girlfriend’s parents have learned a lot about treating Autism and helping their son Greg live life, they have given a lot to their son Greg and to the Autism community. My girlfriend’s mom, Sherril, worked with combative children who were diagnosed along the Autism spectrum and my girlfriend’s dad, Bob, is a trained psychologist who works at Riverside Adult School. My girlfriend’s mom is a trained anthropologist, and both Bob and Sherril spent time in Egypt doing anthropological studies and they have been doing the more than full time work of raising two children.
Since my girlfriend’s parents are well-versed in Autism research, I would ask my girlfriend’s parents about possible causes of Autism, but the research had given answers that were vague at best. There was mention of genetics and mention of vaccines, but nothing that seemed to substantially correlate with the symptoms of Autism or the fact that Autism is not medically testable the way diabetes or high cholesterol are, and Autism has to do with brain development. (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en).
Honestly, I think to limit the research just to genetics or just to environmental factors would be short-changing Autism research. When I think of, for example, Asthma, there are definitely environmental factors like: cigarettes, coal factories, smog and other air pollutants that serve as an impetus for Asthma, but there also seems to be a disposition to Asthma in certain individuals that causes one child who grew up in a smoking household to have asthma and another child in the same household to not have that same predisposition to asthma. So let’s not make it a competition of genetics versus environmental factors, but put them on the same team, so that they can compete together for Autism prevention. This allows us to explore environmental factors and to investigate why certain individuals are more predisposed to Autism. Why one sibling has Autism and the other sibling does not have autism.
Admitting that finding why one family member has a certain disorder and another does not have same that disorder, has proven to be helpful research at times, but in other cases the predisposition remains a mystery. So, since the gene theory of Autism is currently, at best unsure whether it is one gene or the interaction of many genes that serves as a predisposition and/or cause, and environmental factors, such as vaccines are “strongly suspected” at best, then I believe an important step in understanding the cause(s) of autism is to be practical (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en). As there are practical treatments available, such as at your Wellness Center, then what practical preventions are there? What practical correlations can we make with the symptoms of Autism and the epidemic rate at which Autism is spreading?
There are three main aspects that I will focus on: the first is environmental factors, the second is the symptoms and behaviors of an Autistic child, and the third aspect is the interests of young Autistic children. All three aspects tie together and make a strong case for at least attempting, no-cost prevention, and a safe reason to raise awareness on this practical level, to fight an epidemic that needs prevention awareness on a practical plane.
The first aspect, environmental factors, is one that I would like to explain practically. We live in surroundings; we sleep in houses, walk in parks, and talk with people around us. How often we walk, who we talk with, what we watch and read effect how we develop and what we think. If you hang out with people long enough, they influence you; humans are big on relationships: our relationship with God, our relationship with people in general (souls, human nature, and such), our relationship with the weather, our relationship with our friends and family, and our relationship with television effects us, effects our children.
As a nation, our relationship with television has grown exponentially over the past forty years. In the 1970’s cable television was on the rise, in the late 1970’s and early 80’s the VCR became mass produced, and in the early eighties children’s programming began gaining popularity (Waldman, “Does Television Cause Autism?” Pg 11-12.).
In the 1970’s Autism grew 30%, and in the 80’s the amount of people with Autism doubled, and doubled again in the 1990’s (Waldman, “Does Television Cause Autism?” Pg 11); now Autism is an epidemic (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en) and at the forefront of many parents lives as they care for children within the Autism spectrum and children with ADHD effects the day to day lives of American parents and their children.
Now this correlation seems like an interesting relationship, but needs more backing to go from a correlation to a strong correlation, and even to a connection.
There are statistics in this letter (such as the previous stats) which I received from a paper, by Michael Waldman of Cornell University, called “Does Television Cause Autism?” The reason that this relationship is of special interest is the practical sense that it makes. As we look at the developmental relationship of Autism as it is currently being compared with vaccines and air pollution, we do not need to dismiss those factors, but we should take a closer look at what Autism could be telling us. Autism is a brain developmental disorder, not a physical developmental disorder. So when we look at Asthma, we connect the lungs with air-pollution. With Autism it would make sense (and would not have to be definitive, other factors are possibly influential) that a young child, an infant, who isn’t as exposed to other harmful environmental factors, or at least as the physical stages of development are being passed through fine, this young child could have a relationship with a television that effects the child’s mental development. Why? Because who we hang out with effects how we are, if a child doesn’t have people around to develop language with, they won’t develop relational language until they are around other people who are talking to them, and even then it will be difficult to ascertain this relational speech. In the same way, when a child watches television, the way the television relates back to the child is different than normal human interaction and presents reality differently to a developing child’s mind than they would experience when the t.v. is off.
This relational account between the child and television largely accounts for, in a practical way, the Autism epidemic and for the child’s brain development being affected apart from the child’s physical development. This is a possible impetus that makes a strong connection from t.v. to mind, the way air pollution to lung would make a strong connection with an Asthma patient.
Waldman’s test include records from California, which has the longest running records for Autism in the U.S., Waldman surveys places where it rains more and where as other factors were able to be removed- young children watching more television because of rain was correlated, and Waldman also looks at the Amish- who are not experiencing an Autism epidemic. Waldman admits that it could be genetic isolation, but it still serves as strong evidence of the relationship that the young Amish children are not having with television in their community. Waldman cites how the appearance of Nickelodeon in the late ‘70’s and the Disney channel in the early ‘80’s along with the VCR in the early ‘80’s is strong evidence of the rise children’s programming and videos being a relational factor for more and more children with brain development disorders in the Autism spectrum (Waldman, “Does Television Cause Autism?” Pg 11-12.).
Next, in a unrelated article about Autism by Todd McPherson, entitled “Autism rising at alarming, epidemic rate,” an article whose information has also been helpful and I have been using thus far, is an article which seeks to describe Autism, and mention possible gene, vaccine, and chemicals as factors that have been explored, the article describes symptoms clearly and concisely. McPherson says “Autism is best described as a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication,” and the impairing of social interaction, like impaired language acquisition because a child was without other people to talk with, is related to strong social influence of the television, preventing the human relationships from breaking through to the child as they normally would, without the t.v. providing an alternative social development. This helps explain
why it is 1 girl for every 4 boys that have Autism (The Brunei Times, May 2008. www.bt.com/bn/en), girls tend to multitask better (and this does not need to be argued culturally), but the female, created to be able to be to multi-task with one or with many children and various other tasks at the same time, and the difference with boys who tend to focus more on specific projects, and tend to focus on more narrow pursuits; this would explain why boys have a much higher tendency towards Autism than girls, and the explanation is practical, as well as biological and how those biological dispositions affect interaction in the environment.
The McPherson article goes on to say that, “As those with Autism become toddlers it becomes more apparent that they use much less eye contact, imitate their parents less, may not wave goodbye or hello, and fail to learn to take turns and communicate nonverbally.” Practically, we can go and look at someone who has been watching t.v. for a sustained period of time and try asking them questions from the other room, or engaging them in conversation while they watch t.v., or see if they look to watch us as we leave; we know that some people will interact normally, but we also know that many times these symptoms of Autism are produced in a much more temporary manner, by those who’s brains developed normally. Also in a relationship with t.v., the relationship is very one sided, the infant or child under three is not encouraged to talk back to the t.v., imitation or interaction isn’t encouraged in the normal developmental pattern of person to person or of the normal baby exploring the environment around them, rather the child absorbs a much more limited environment that discourages normal human interaction. What t.v. does encourage is absorbing a lot of information, which Autistic children often do, and verbal Autistic children and adults are known to talk at, not with other people, the way a t.v. talks at and not with people. So t.v. hampers the social development and encourages information absorption for the child.
McPherson describes more developmental symptoms, “As children they frequently display many forms of repetitive or restricted behaviour.” The repetitive and the restrictive behavior fit in with what has been discussed so far, the restrictive behavior mirrors the restricted mental developmental growth that the t.v. offers, versus having a interaction with other people or being free to explore their surroundings. The repetitive behavior also mirrors the televisions’ behaviors with consistent commercial breaks, ritual times and days of television programs, an unmatched consistency compared to many variables in life, but far less personal than many other variables in life.
Lastly, as my girlfriend has witnessed her brother Greg grow up with Autism, Greg, and my girlfriend has also has been working with Autistic children in northern Riverside County for the last several weeks, working one on one with Autistic children at various locations: school, home, day camps and she has been receiving hands on training, learning terms and implementing methods of working with the kids. My girlfriend, Claire Smith, says that it is tough work, but the kids are very cute and she enjoys interacting with them. Claire has been telling me over the last several weeks what many of their interests are, and there is one common theme: entertainment. Claire even said that one child was writing “entertainment” over and over again on the board. The theme is entertainment and the tool is television and dvds; the kids will quote movie lines and even quote “Coming Soon to dvd!” They will say lines from movies or be interested in movie companies and the children will find their interests from that source, it seems to be a strong correlation, even a connection that t.v. is the impetus for the brain development disorder of Autism and possibly even ADHD. To clarify, I’m not saying that anyone who is interested in t.v. and movies has Autism or ADHD; it is when t.v. impairs their mental and social development (as with Autism) or impairs their relational concentration ability (as with ADHD) that I’m concerned with, as Autism and ADHD are a concern to many Americans and many people worldwide.
Now the kids will find other obsessions that, as far as I know, often stem from television, for example, from an obsession or interest in Thomas the Train Engine, an obsession or strong interest in trains, so the interest does not need to stay television, but this is strongly evidenced to be a disorder who’s epidemic growth’s impetus is early childhood television watching. This does not need be the only cause of Autism, there could be various other current factors, and various other factors that may have been an impetus, maybe a radio or various other factors involved with social developmental in the past that may have served as an impetus for Autism or Autism-like disorders before the t.v. was invented and even while the t.v. has been around it is possible that there are other strong factors influential in this disorder, but the epidemic growth, characteristics of autism, and the interests of autistic children is strongly linked to childhood television watching. The prevention is free; don’t let your child watch t.v. until they are four or five. And even if it is not the main contributor, at least children are engaging more with people around them and are exploring more of the world around them; engaging in healthy developmental relationships. Awareness is what is important for prevention.
And that is why I write to you Mr. Jones because you and your wife are parents who have dealt with Autism on both a research level and personal level; and Lord willing, I would like to hear your feedback, and hear your opinion on how to contact and reach not only the autism community, but others as well, so that there is a strong a awareness of Autism prevention for patients, people and the community. And the other day Claire reminded me of the Baby Einstein videos and that reminded of what my friend Steve had said about Baby Einstein videos causing Autism for children, and how that would be putting a child in front of t.v. even more than usual; Steve’s warning suddenly made a lot more sense and I think that word of mouth will be a very important tool for, Lord willing, Autism prevention, but I would like to run it by you first, before I go running my mouth off to too many folks and hear a professional opinion and discuss it with you before I discuss it with my girlfriend’s parents and other folks, who would be interested in this discussion.
Thank you very much for reading this-
Sincerely,
Ryan Burke
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