TV Implicated in Autism Rise

Business Professors' Study Links Too Much Toddler TV Time to Autism
By Daniel DeNoon WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
Too much TV time for toddlers may trigger autism, according to a study by Cornell business professors. Over the past few decades, there's been an amazing increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism. Some experts think this is due to broader diagnostic criteria for autism. Some point to vastly increased services for autistic children. Others think that something in the environment is triggering an autism epidemic.
It occurred to Cornell University management professor Michael Waldman, PhD, that the increase in autism cases came at the same time as increased opportunities for very young children to watch TV. Could it be, he wondered, that the explosion in children's TV programming, DVDs, VCRs, and video/computer games is behind the explosion in autism diagnoses? Waldman asked his colleagues in the medical world to look at the issue. Nobody would. So he assembled a research team and did the study himself -- using tools more often seen in economic studies than in medical studies. The results bolstered his suspicions.
... Until more direct studies confirm or disprove this conclusion, Waldman and colleagues recommend that parents follow the American Academy of Pediatrician's recommendation of no TV before age 2, and no more than an hour or two of TV a day for older children. ... Like Waldman, child development expert Leslie Rubin, MD says Americans -- including medical researchers -- don't pay enough attention to what television does to kids.

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