My new theory of autism | Autism PDD
I have a new one every day, but this one has been brewing for a few months now. So here goes. Please comment if you think I am totally crazy. I would love to hear anyone's opinion about this.
I think that autism is on the rise because children's brains are being overstimulated with input. When did they start making all these toys with flashing lights, loud sounds, and bright colors? Malls are blasting loud music, more flashing lights, large screen t.v.s, etc. It's like going to a Vegas casino. Does it have any kind of correlation to the rise in autism?
Before Baby Einstein videos, playing music in the womb, black/white/red toys to stimulate a baby's vision, etc...I can't even find a stacking ring toy at Toys R Us now without lights and sounds. All these things were invented so recently, and mostly because of marketing to parents' anxieties and a study done on neglected orphans whose brains had deteriorated from lack of stimulation. The average newborn baby gets enough stimulation from just observing the natural world around him.
We on this board have children whose brains are sensitive to input. Maybe all these stimulating toys and environments are okay for the average child but just too much for others. My son's pediatrician's office has full sized murals painted on every wall. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But for my son, from the first appt when he was 2? days old, he has cried every single time we step into that office. This was before experiencing the pain of shots, before knowing at all what was going to happen there, from the very first visit on. He is fine in any other doctor's office. He broke his leg and had to go to specialists. He never cried once when he had the cast put on or taken off. He only cries consistently in that particular office. And he has always been sensitive to visual input. If he cries because of painting on a wall, imagine what the mall is like for this kid, or a flashing, brightly colored, noisy toy. He is stunned into silence. At home where we are quiet as mice (partly because of our culture, partly because of sensory issues we all seem to share), he is okay and talks up a storm.
Then I recognized that stunned look my son gets in public on another boy's face. I met a mom whose boy had stopped talking and interacting with anyone at the age of 18 months. She said it was like a door slammed shut on this kid, it was so abrupt. He was 2 when I met him. He had a very boisterous twin sister. When she introduced me to him, he looked me right in the eye. But that same look my son got in public places, that half blank/half intense stare, this little boy had that same look. But on that day it puzzled me why he keeps that look all day and my son only does it in public.
This is why some people notice the autism from the beginning, and others notice it after the baby shots. It may depend on the severity of the child's autism when it is noticable. The Ped. said this is also why so many high functioning adults went undiagnosed. The vaccines required years ago aren't what it is today and new adatives have been introduced since then.
As far as all the lights and sounds and music and so forth. All those things usually do over stimulate an ASD child. Most on the spectrum have sensory issues over or under sensitive to certain things.
Well... I beleive of course, as it sounds like everyone else pretty much does to a more or lesser extent, Nature VS Nurture.In this case we have genes that are present, dominate or recessive, that code for autism, or traits of the disorder, some turned on, some turned off, let environmental factors be introduced such as pollution, toxic metals, electromagietic radiation, lead paint, radon?! you name it, and although much of this is natural, most of it is the result of man. Their are many factors for why autism is on the rise, not just nature V nurture, but also better medical understanding. No real documentation exists to say that perportionally to the rest of the population autism is on the rise because it is only in recent history is their an understanding for what autism truly is.
Equasions with many MANY variables is difficult to solve, if not almost impossible. Im afraid autism is such a mathmatical equation. Too many possibilities, to many variables, and in the future itll be interesting to see what those in the medical feild come up with, as genetic components become better understood, itll be interesting to hear what they find, if they find anything definitive at all.
It is exatcly this reason, too many variables, that I dont like claims that 'mercury in shots dont cause autism' or 'having a father that is an engineer contributes' because the fact is these small factors can be a part of or even be indirectly responsible for larger factors that can be expressed as a variable in the autism equation.
BTW... everyone like my spelling? heh. Hope you all know what I mean spelling was indeed my weakest subject, like my father
True, but these toys are such an easy thing to get rid of. If parents even suspected that they would be detrimental to their children, they would not allow them in their homes, at least I wouldn't!
As an educator, I have always frowned on them even before I had my own child. I have read books that say that children do not need this kind of stimulation. Yet millions of children get these kinds of toys every day. I'm not saying for the older kids, but I think the association of pediatrics should make a recommendation for them, just like they do for t.v., not before the age of 2.
Hey Sally, It's a decent theory excect for one thing. Sure Brendon and Jacob had all of the nice toys, but they never played with or even interacted with them. B's favorite toys are the lids to the pans, and that's all he's ever "played" with. Jacobs favorite toy is the computer. Nothing really flashing or noisy there unless he puts on itunes and turns on ambiance. Neither of the boys like the flashy toys. Jacob got a new wagon with blocks in it for use during our therapy sessions, and he's playing with it appropriately now (after much routine and hand over hand to show him how). Brendon has a cube that has an abacus, xylaphone, tic tac toe board, and a maze on it. It also has one of those bead on the wires thingie on top of it. After many hours of therapy, he's playing with it approprately now. That cube has been our best tool for getting B's compliance during ABA.Actually, the only "toy" my son ever played with was the stacking rings before they had the sounds and lights. He would put the toy in one room and then take each ring one at a time to another room and line them up and then put them each back one at a time on the stacker in the other room. He would do this forever, over and over again. We called it his "ring project", and boy look out if you got in the way or interrupted him. This was before the dx.
I personally think spectrum disorders have been around for a very, very long time. They just went largely undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. In my opinion we are very fortunate that we have so much readily available knowledge to help our kids and ourselves.
I agree with Woodsman,I think that it is a little bit of genetics then bring in the triggers..shots, other toxins, foods, etc and boom. I too saw a difference in my youngest boy after his mmr shot, almost 3 weeks to the day, stoped eye contact, babling, eating, responding to his name and so on. As for the toys, I think maybe not, I know several older people with Autism (20's) and they didnt have all the stuff thats out there now. Its good that you are constantly observing though, maybe between all of us parents we will figure it out before the scientist do
Kim The one thing i wonder about is the varying degrees of Autism spectrum disorder, why some are more mildly or severely affected. If its genetic you either have the gene or you don't, which makes me think its possible there could be a predispostion to this but also something is strongly affecting the outcome and severity. Has to be something environmental or something ingested. Although my son is mildly affected i do wonder where he would be today had my husband not been, down on the floor with him, in his face kind of play, daily since the day he was born. It's a good theory! I am just not sure anymore what the exact cause is. My son always has loved musical & light bright toys. He still prefers these types of toys? And as far as immunizations, in our case I really don't feel they had any effect. Grant had mild signs of Autism early on and after his vaccinations he actually improved in many areas, so I think it's just a case to case basis. Here is an example of how clear a baby sees at certain ages. My son didn't really care for those kinds of toys. In fact, there was one we had that was a gift - it played classical music, had flashing lights and had a bead maze as well. He HATED it! The only ones he liked that had noise or music were toy phones. He had an Elmo one, but the voice was very soft on it. Oh, he did like one Yankee Doodle Dandy bear my parents gave him. I sold that one at a garage sale for 10 cents. It was in perfect condition and the people were totally stunned that I would sell it for that cheap. Well, if you heard that song 75 times in one day - you would sell it too!
Otherwise, I think it's probably not wise to play with those toys a LOT. My belief is that most things are okay in MODERATION. Our kids watch TV maybe one hour a day. Ds almost never watches it now because he is in school all day and I don't allow TV after school. The bus comes too early for him to watch it in the mornings. Even on weekends he doesn't watch it hardly at all. My dd does - about an hour a day is what I limit her to. I think these toys are probably not terribly beneficial - but okay if they are one of lots of other toys that don't have those things. And, if that toy gets over-used, it goes bye- bye for a while! My kids really more enjoyed playing with pots and pans (banging on them), musical instruments, dancing, reading books, stacking blocks, etc. I knew that babies supposedly could only see their mothers faces in front of them at something like 3 mos, etc, but everybody in my family agrees that we thought our son could see us from the day he was born. The nurse in the room with all the incubators told us how much fun she had with him because he acted like an older baby and was doing all kiinds of stuff with him. I always figured he could really see a lot more because as soon as he gained control of his hands, he was already turning pages of a book and sitting there "reading" them for a very long time. We have a picture of his reading a book by himself before he could even sit up. Then when he identified his first number, pointing to and saying "8" when he was 6-8 months old, pointing to and saying all the numbers before he turned 18 mos, blurting out random words that he could read off of signs and menus, I know it sounds bizarre, but nobody ever taught him any of it. It seems like he could do a lot of things waaay before he was supposed to and he can't do a lot of things waaay after he is supposed to.
Their was a fisher price flashlight that could change color like a stop light.
A headset that was on 1 frequency so me and my sis could communicate thru it
yea... really very simple electronic stuff, we did not have computers back then, no video games, nothing, if it is toys, or at least toys are a factor I would suggest electromagnetism, of course electromagnetism itself is a spectrum where radio waves, light, gamma, alpha, beta, ect... all lie. As technology progresses so doesnt the precence of man made electromagnetic radiation, and everything electronic, from that wire carrying electric current to the SETI antini in Puerto Rico that beams photons at 186,000 mi/sec into the universe and also receives such particles to determine if they are ordered, as if a message, or chaotic, as if a star was emitting them.
Heh, wow! Im very sorry everyone, i went wayyyy off on a tangent, but their is little doubt in my mind man made stuff like electromagnetic radiation and pollution are the environmental factors, paired with natures placement of specific genes on chromosoms make some syseptible to the disorder, others not so much, and many carryers for these genes.
I think the rise in cases, aside from medical industry factors may be a big result of more advanced technology, we are surrounded by it, and the pollution generated by creating that technology, all the while we are being exposed to electromagnetic radiation all around, and ever increasing, like ASD.
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