Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Are you saying autism is visible on MRIs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

NP. I agree that you cannot screen time your way into autism. However, I DO think that the extreme amounts of screen time that some children are exposed to now absolutely must be having a detrimental effect of some sort. I think we've all seen or been around people who are propping infants up in front of tablets, seen toddlers who can't be separated from iPads, etc. That virtual 24/7 bombardment is definitely going to impact them negatively. The question is just in what way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re “high functioning”, do you really have autism? When I was growing up, autism meant non-communicative, in-your-own-world kind of behavior. Is the “spectrum “ too broad now because people want a label for their kids just because they’re a little weird?

And I’ll bet that when you were growing up, a subway ride cost a nickel. Was there any particular point you were trying to make, other than to deliberately invalidate the identities of autistic people who don’t meet your ableist and decades-out-of-date conception of what autism is? Of course, ignorance and hatred like yours isn’t unexpected on a forum like this one. Even the r-word is considered acceptable by the admins.

DP. The r word is not acceptable. Report it and it gets deleted. As for the rest, there's a lot of dissatisfaction from experts and laypeople about the current diagnostics for autism. It's not ableist to say that autism is too broad now.

+1 Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Unfortunately, you can. Brains are plastic. Given the wrong stimulus in the earliest years, the effects may be permanent.

+ 1,000,000 - No question. Jane Healy, Ph.D. documented the horrific consequences of screen time, and how it LITERALLY rewires a child’s brain. Shocking that intelligent people still believe this is debatable. Screens are never a good thing for young children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re “high functioning”, do you really have autism? When I was growing up, autism meant non-communicative, in-your-own-world kind of behavior. Is the “spectrum “ too broad now because people want a label for their kids just because they’re a little weird?

And I’ll bet that when you were growing up, a subway ride cost a nickel. Was there any particular point you were trying to make, other than to deliberately invalidate the identities of autistic people who don’t meet your ableist and decades-out-of-date conception of what autism is? Of course, ignorance and hatred like yours isn’t unexpected on a forum like this one. Even the r-word is considered acceptable by the admins.

DP. The r word is not acceptable. Report it and it gets deleted. As for the rest, there's a lot of dissatisfaction from experts and laypeople about the current diagnostics for autism. It's not ableist to say that autism is too broad now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Unfortunately, you can. Brains are plastic. Given the wrong stimulus in the earliest years, the effects may be permanent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re “high functioning”, do you really have autism? When I was growing up, autism meant non-communicative, in-your-own-world kind of behavior. Is the “spectrum “ too broad now because people want a label for their kids just because they’re a little weird?

And I’ll bet that when you were growing up, a subway ride cost a nickel. Was there any particular point you were trying to make, other than to deliberately invalidate the identities of autistic people who don’t meet your ableist and decades-out-of-date conception of what autism is? Of course, ignorance and hatred like yours isn’t unexpected on a forum like this one. Even the r-word is considered acceptable by the admins.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to get worse. I am a school psychologist and when I look at the younger siblings of students at the school I am at really worried about how many if them are in strollers staring at screens. Phones and tablets are an effective and cheap babysitter. It’s a low income school where kids don’t have the opportunity to get signed up for activities where they interact.

If there are kids on the spectrum who are borderline with a lot of socialization with parents, siblings, friends, quality pre-schools, attending story times, etc. they might not ever have enough symptoms to have issues or get diagnosed. Now add COVID lock down to that mix where kids didn’t socialize at all for a year not even with cousins. We are seeing kids who are coming in to K with lower language and socialization skills across the board. It’s really, really concerning.

I do NOT think though that you can screen time your way into autism. you can screen time your way into poor socialization, but not into the fundamental brain differences, visible on MRIs, that exist in the brains of true autistic individuals from birth.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re “high functioning”, do you really have autism? When I was growing up, autism meant non-communicative, in-your-own-world kind of behavior. Is the “spectrum “ too broad now because people want a label for their kids just because they’re a little weird?

Anonymous wrote:If you’re “high functioning”, do you really have autism? When I was growing up, autism meant non-communicative, in-your-own-world kind of behavior. Is the “spectrum “ too broad now because people want a label for their kids just because they’re a little weird?

Anonymous wrote:Northern Ireland is a very small country. This could easily be the result of a handful of specialists changing their practices.