More bad science regarding autism….

In spite of the best efforts of statistics faculty everywhere, people constantly want to infer causality from correlations. Even though we can point to ridiculous examples, such as the strong positive correlation between ice cream sales and the murder rate (both increase in warm weather), some people just don’t get it.

Now we have what may be one of the worst contributions to our understanding of autism, a paper entitled “Does Television Cause Autism?” Good grief. The authors claim that autism rates are rising at the same time access to cable TV is increasing.

Where do I start?

First of all, the authors are professors of management and economics at Cornell with no expertise whatsoever in mental health. The lead author told Slate magazine, “I asked around and found that medical researchers were not working on this, so accepted that I should research it myself.” You know, sometimes there are very good reasons why medical researchers are NOT working on something. For instance, they know something about autism, the timing of its onset (most people assume it is present in many cases from birth), its symptoms, and some of its more likely causes. TV is not on this list for some very sound scientific reasons.

Second, most researchers believe that recent increases in autism rates have more to do with a loosening of diagnostic criteria than with a real increase in prevalence. The jury is still out on this one, as some environmental factors, such as mercury emissions, are suspected as having a possible role.

I am not a fan of network television, and I think that parking young children in front of the TV is a huge mistake. TV can have lots of negative effects on kids, but most relate to TV time being used as a substitute for things children SHOULD be doing, like playing, exploring, and interacting with parents, siblings and peers. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting children’s television exposure to 1-2 hours per day as a maximum.

We still have more questions than answers about autism. Lots of parents are desperate for answers. I think it’s highly unlikely that the answer will be in the amount of television children watch.