Over the past three decades, the number of children diagnosed with autism has grown from 1 in 2,500 to 1 in 166, and some researchers think that may be partly tied to the rise of cable TV.
Authors Michael Waldman and Sean Nicholson found that a rise in autism incidence in certain counties in Oregon, California, Washington and Pennsylvania starting in 1980, and it mirrored a rise in
cable television subscriptions. Waldman, a professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, says he got the idea from news reports on rising rates.
"I like working on puzzles.
It sort of dawned on me that there's been an increase in young children watching TV." He notes that a lot of parents are upset with his findings, calling them junk science. I find it seems to be an
obvious thing that should be looked at, but why the medical community doesn't I'm not quite sure."
The Waldman study did not directly measure time children spent watching TV and how it
correlates to an autism diagnosis. The American Academy of Pediatrics says there should be no TV watching under age of 2, and from 2-5 it should be limited.
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