Can TV viewing cause autism?
An autism diagnosis is something that every parent fears. It can mean a life of self-contained struggle, limited growth and social incapacitation for a child, and there is no cure. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately one in 300 children in the United States suffers from autism-spectrum disorders (ASD). According to the Cornell and Purdue University researchers who released a study connecting toddler-age TV viewing with autism occurrence, that number is more like one in 175. When an infant or toddler exhibits abnormal social behavior such as refusing eye contact, withdrawing from outside stimulation and obsessively focusing on a single object and shows slow, non-existent or suddenly regressed psychological development in areas like speaking and understanding language, the wide variety of autism-spectrum disorders becomes a possible explanation. Autism is the most severe form of these disorders, and an autistic child leads a fairly li
