“Virtual Autism” May Explain Explosive Rise in ASD Diagnoses

Marilyn Wedge, PhD

Some children who have been diagnosed with autism or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) could dramatically benefit from not being exposed to electronic screens.

New clinical case studies have found that many young children who spend too much screen time—on TV’s, video games, tablets and computers—have symptoms labeled as “autism.”1 When parents take away the screens for a few months the child’s symptoms disappear. The term for this phenomenon is “Virtual Autism” or autism induced by electronic screens. The term “Virtual Autism” was coined by Romanian clinical psychologist Dr Marius Zamfir.

Romania witnessed an astonishing rise in autism among youngsters in a children’s hospital. The cause was unknown, so one psychiatrist dug into the activity logs the hospital collected on all admitted patients. In those records he found a strong trend: children presenting with autism were spending four or more hours a day watching some kind of screen: television, computer, tablet, or phone. Today in Romania, treatment of autism by screen withdrawal is considered routine and has public support.2

We are seeing a startling rise in autism diagnoses in the United States, a trend that has parents, teachers, and mental health professionals puzzled and concerned.

These statistics from the Center for Disease Control paint a stark picture of the rising rates of diagnoses:

In 1975, 1 in 5000 children were diagnosed with autism.

In 2005, 1 in 500 children.

In 2014 (the most recent CDC numbers), 1 in 68 children.

The latest government survey of parents suggests that today the number of children living with autism may be as high as 1 in 45. That means that today in the United States a child is 100 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than children in 1975.

What’s going on? What is behind the exponential rise in the diagnosis of autism? Does removing electronic screens from the lives of at least some young children decrease their risk of autism or even reduce their symptoms after they have been diagnosed?

Two French doctors with expertise in child development, Dr. Isabelle Terrasse and Dr. Anne-Lise Ducanda, have created an excellent YouTube video that provides some answers. The video is called: “Screens: Danger for children from 0-4 years old” (in French with English subtitles). They made the video based on case studies at Dr. Ducanda’s clinic.. Their intent is to warn parents and health professionals about the rising tide of “Virtual Autism” and to propose solutions. Their research found that some children between the ages of 0 to 4 who were diagnosed with autism benefited from eliminating their exposure to electronic screens.

Dr. Ducanda and Dr. Terrasse looked at children who had been diagnosed with autism at hospitals. (In France, this is where children are typically diagnosed with serious problems.) These children’s symptoms entirely disappeared one month after eliminating their screen time. “Virtual autism” is the term they used to describe this phenomenon. The researchers concluded that screen time hindered these children’s brain development and prevented them from developing a normal social life.

In the video, Dr. Ducanda points out that children’s TV shows teach the child to repeat words without knowing what the words mean. A child can count, but the child doesn’t know what the numbers mean. For example, the child can repeat the number three. But if you ask the child: “Give me three pencils,” the child cannot do it. When shown a picture and asked a question like “What is the little girl doing?” the child simply echoes the words “What is the little girl doing?” instead of answering the question.

Children learn the meaning of words through social interaction—by playing with real objects and having someone look at him and talk with him. A mother says “Put on your coat and we will go out for a walk” which is associated with the action of putting on a coat and going for a walk, giving the words context and meaning. A child learns about the world by manipulating a toy with his hands, feeling it with his mouth and throwing it on the ground. The child’s brain registers the connections.

A small child’s brain cannot develop without this sense of touch and interaction. Light and noise from electronic screens capture a child’s attention, but they do not lead to healthy brain development.3

Indeed, screens are so alluring that it’s difficult for the child to turn to something else. In short, he becomes distracted by the screen and addicted. The screen also isolates the child from human interactions which are necessary to communication skills and language development. Even worse, the noise and light from screens—even cartoons—can generate painful emotions that the child can barely cope with. These feelings can lead to violent and aggressive behavior in a young child.

What is striking about the explosion in diagnoses of autistic spectrum disorder is that it correlates with the increased use of television since 1975 and the digital revolution. In 1975, a typical family had one television screen in their home. Today, with the digital revolution, families often have 10-15 screens. Besides ever-larger TV screens we have desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones and video game players. Tablets are advertised in toy catalogues for babies as young as six months old.

Young children are exposed to screens far more than what is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Academy recommends that children under the age of two not be exposed to screens at all and that older children be limited to two hours a day.

Interestingly, the exploding rise in autism affects children in all rich countries—and only in rich countries. From the perspective of Virtual Autism, it makes sense that countries that have not experienced the digital revolution have not experienced exponential increases in autism diagnoses because their young children are not spending time in front of screens. Dr. Ducanda noticed that after her “autistic” patients spent a month in Africa, without screens, they came back with no symptoms.

If screens are removed from some children with an autism diagnosis, the child’s brain development can return to normal. He begins to play like never before. He returns to normal development. Based on the small studies, we cannot conclude that this is true for every child. But based on mounting numbers of clinical case studies, it is certainly true for some children. Although scientists have not found a genetic link for autism, some children may be predisposed to develop symptoms of autism.

In one French case study, a father who displayed Asperger-like symptoms in his own childhood “treated” his severely autistic 2 1/2 year old by removing screens (which he was watching four to six hours a day). The father also began intensive play sessions with his son. The young boy fully recovered.

Clearly, removing screens from the life of a young child is not an easy task for parents. The child will have tantrums. The rest of the family will be inconvenienced with the television turned off. In my own practice, I’ve had parents object to keeping the TV set turned off in the evening because they like to watch their favorite programs to relax after they come home from work. I’ve suggested to these parents that they record the shows they like and watch them after the children are asleep.

Parents may need support for this change of lifestyle.  In some cases they might need support from a therapist or social worker knowledgeable in child development. But when parents do make the necessary changes, and spend more time with their child in interactive play, the effects can be amazingly beneficial. This is true for any child. And if a child is at risk for autism or has already been diagnosed, there’s even more motivation for parents to try screen removal for a month or so to see if the absence of screen time produces results.

* * * * *

Editor’s note: On September 12th, Marilyn Wedge and psychologist Gretchen LeFever Watson will present a MIA Continuing Education webinar on non-drug interventions for youth diagnosed with ADHD. Register here.

Show 3 footnotes

  1.  Oestreicher, L. The Pied Pipers of Autism—How TV, Video, and Toys Cause ASD. 2011: Merced
  2.  Cytowic, R. “There is a New Link between Screen-time and Autism.” Psychology Today, June 29, 2017.
  3.  Heffler, K.F. and Oestreicher, L.M. Causation model of autism: Audiovisual brain specialization in infancy competes with social brain networks. Medical hypotheses, 2015.

Support MIA


Select Payment Method
Personal Info

Credit Card Info
This is a secure SSL encrypted payment.

Billing Details

Donation Total: $20


  1. I have no doubt that much ‘autism’ diagnosis today is as bogus as a three dollar bill, and so, therefore, your categorizing some instances of ‘autism’ as ‘virtual’ is entirely appropriate. I’ve seen it suggested, given the “epidemic” in ‘autism’ that it is said we are currently experiencing, that much on the upper end of the spectrum, that is, what they used to call “Asperger syndrome” and “high functioning” ‘autism’ is, as you say, ‘virtual’. On the downside, I can’t but think that we could lose quite a few future MIT grads with the wide spread use of what you have put forward as a remedy.

    • Autism and Asperger syndrome are just two terms that mean the same thing. So people who have been (correctly) labeled with Asperger’s are Autistic. There’s no such thing as high- or low-functioning it’s all just autism. Meeting traditionally recognized milestones of success, such as having a family and a high-paying job, are entirely compatible with being Autistic. That doesn’t mean those people are “less Autistic” than others, and in fact saying it does is quite insulting to both the people who do and don’t meet those milestones.

      Medical injuries such as mercury poisoning, which happen to superficially look similar enough to autism to get misdiagnosed, are just that, superficially similar in appearance, while being 100% unequivocally “not autism.”

      • I kind of just think everything is a best guess here. The “autism” rates have shot up dramatically enough for people to speak of an epidemic in recent years. My take on the matter is that this upsurge is due to the fact that they are calling people “autistic” today that they wouldn’t have been calling “autistic” ten years ago.

  2. Marilyn:
    I completely agree that increasing time spent on electronic screens by kids is a huge part of the autism epidemic. I would like to add that increasing time addictively spent on screens by their parents, other caretakers, and siblings, which prevents eye contact and social interactions even if the child is available and trying to connect with them, is also part of the problem. I believe this problem starts right after birth; Due to the availability of formula bottle feeding, parents can feed their babies while focusing on activities on their cell phones, ipads, or laptops, which they can do at the same time. These early parent-child intense bonding, eye-contact, and physical-contact interactions, are probably the first steps which are necessary to pave the way for successive social and behavioral developmental stages. If they never really happen, then the whole process will likely be blocked. I, myself, though, am glad that bottle feeding was available when my kids were babies, since it was an amazingly enjoyable experience to be looking into each other’s eyes as I was feeding and holding them. I could sense the bond developing between us as this was occurring. It’s a shame that some parents nowadays don’t get to experience just how enjoyable/rewarding this is, due to all the electronics and the virtual world having become so dominant in our lives, or due to not being able to be with their kids enough since they have to work to support them..

    And thank you for your wonderful book “A Disease Called Childhood”, which had a huge impact on me. Just the name of the book itself conveys so much of the wrong that has been done by my field, and how the medical model is a complete farce.


  3. I’m sensitive to EMF and need to be really careful about wi-fi, phones etc. I cannot use a smart phone at all. We went back to wires for computers and don’t have cordless phones etc in our home. Made a huge difference. There are a lot of things in our environments that sensitive folks have problems with. It’s an issue of over-stimulation and it affects folks anywhere on the spectrum and also a lot of people who are drug injured by psych meds and others who deal with sensitivities associated with various chronic illnesses and autoimmune issues etc. One can develop better tolerance over time by healing issues with the body I’ve found but it’s still something some of us need to be very careful about.

    Another author here on mad in america named drug damage that acts like autism “pseudo-autism” — I noted a long time ago now that I have a lot in common with autistic folks too. Sensitivities get manifested in a lot of different ways these day.

    See: When Modern Medicine Made Me More Autistic – Mad In America https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/04/when-modern-medicine-made-me-more-autistic/


    “Pseudo-Autism” as a result of psych drug injury (another consideration in protracted withdrawal syndrome from psych meds) – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/2017/04/10/pseudo-autism/

    Anyway, back to EMF stuff..it’s not just the screens that are a problem…when I shifted to a non-attached keyboard (stopped using the keyboard that came with my laptop) … that helped me so immensely it blew my mind. I am by no means alone in this…I know lots of folks impacted like this.

  4. I’m not sure I’ll catch everything that’s wrong with this article, but I can try.

    1. The increasing trend of Autistic people being identified as such is in no way “explosive” this is fearmongering.
    2. There is no reason to say Autism Spectrum Disorder, just “autism” will suffice.
    3. There are zero autism diagnoses. You cannot “diagnose” something that is not a medical condition.
    4. ASD is just the medicalized name for autism there is no need to present autism and ASD as two separate options.
    5. Autistic people generally benefit from BEING exposed to screens. You are advocating against accommodations at best and for active child abuse at worst.
    6. How much screen time is “too much”? You can ask 100 parents and get 100 different answers. Clarifications, people, they are important.
    7. You have used the word “symptoms” without specifying what disease they are a symptom of. If we haven’t verified that there even is a disease, we cannot confidently call them symptoms.
    8. While I don’t have access to the abstract, considering the title “How TV, Video, and Toys Cause ASD” I don’t find your first reference to be a credible source.
    9. If a child stops being Autistic after a few months of technology deprivation, then they weren’t Autistic in the first place.
    10. “autism induced by electronic screens”? That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
    11. At first, when reading the title, I thought “virtual autism” meant “non-autism things that look superficially similar to autism and get misdiagnosed”. Now that you have clarified it to mean “autism induced by electronic screens”, I must say you are using the term incorrectly. If that is also what Dr Marius Zamfir meant by “virtual autism”, then he too was using his own term incorrectly.
    12. “Romania witnessed an astonishing rise in autism” Citation needed. Ironically that paragraph actually has a citation, but it doesn’t justify the section I’ve quoted.
    13. “Children presenting with autism were spending four or more hours a day watching some kind of screen.” The correct conclusion, if we even believe that this evidence is really conclusive, is to say that autism causes screen time.
    14. “Today in Romania, treatment of autism by screen withdrawal is considered routine and has public support.” That is horrifying. That is child abuse. That’s not something wrong with the article, but the fact that the article fails to point out the abusiveness is.
    15. “startling” more fearmongering.
    16. Autism statistics have gone up with the same amount of time delay after each new DSM release. If mental health professionals are still “puzzled”, those professionals are incompetent.
    17. Center*S* for Disease Control. That’s a nitpick, but I am going for “everything.”
    18. “stark” more fearmongering.
    19. Diagnoses aren’t the problem, it’s the “behavioral interventions” that come after.
    20. Citing the rising CDC estimate is not only fearmongering, it’s also (21) a cliché.
    22. Okay, 1 in 45 children have a cat named Autism that they are living with, but how many children are Autistic?
    23. “What is behind the exponential rise in the diagnosis of autism?” Answer: New releases of the DSM. I’ve solved the mystery. No need to write these articles.
    24. Non-medical things don’t have “risk factors.”
    25. Non-medical things don’t have “symptoms.”
    26. Citing psychiatrists as experts on autism is a logical fallacy.
    27. “rising tide” fearmongering
    28. “Solutions” is literally the word that Nazis used to describe prevention of the Jewish problem.
    29. No operational definition provided for the word “benefited”
    30. No follow-up period needed one month will suffice. Much peer review. Very science. Wow.
    31. No operational definition provided for the word “hindered”
    32. No operational definition provided for the word “normal”
    33. All language development including that of non-Autistic children has a period where words and their meanings have not yet been connected. For some words this persists into adulthood, as demonstrated by this author’s misuse of the word autism.
    34. The second example of echolalia doesn’t support the point made by the first example. This is simply bad writing technique.
    35. No operational definition provided for the word “healthy”
    36. Considering the amount of media attention bogus autism causes get, I have serious doubts about the study in reference 3 having found the real one.
    37. Needing to take a break is not the same thing as addiction.
    38. Computers are used more often to create human interactions than to prevent them.
    39. If screen time is painful why would children keep doing it?
    40. Violent and aggressive behavior is not autism.
    41. There’s that “explosion” word again.
    42. There’s that “disorder word again.
    43. Correlation is not causation.
    44. Video game players are not screens they are humans.
    45. There is an exponential rise in the author’s use of the word “exploding”
    45. Countries that do not have as many screens also do not have as much psychiatric diagnosing this is called a coincidence.
    46. Normal normal normal I still have no idea what this word means.
    47. Non-medical things don’t have “symptoms.”
    48. The word “treated” is correctly put in scare quotes but diagnosis and symptom aren’t please try to be more consistent.
    49. There is no such thing as severely Autistic any more than there is severely female.
    50. “Intensive play” is an oxymoron.
    51. Recovered from what? You can’t recover from autism because it’s not a disease.
    52. Old man yells at cloud.

    • I applaud you for speaking truth over this atrocious article. My son will be 4 in October and did not have hardly any “screen time” until he was over 2 1/2. He would not engage when I tried to teach him new things by getting on the floor with him or taking him outside. He only knew a handful of words and would hum as a form of communication. I tried everything until I decided to see if he would try playing with an educational app. I was astonished at how well he engaged. He’s receiving in-home therapy and also had his screen time. We are making progress!! This article needs to be removed since it holds no credibility and that is sad coming from a person who acquired a PhD. Autism can’t be cured!! It IS a way the brain functions. And these people who are commenting about how their child was suddenly “cured and neurotypical” after removing screen time need to understand that their child was never on the spectrum to begin with.

  5. This article isn’t even really *about* autism, the author is just using Autistic children as punching bags because that’s how casually the Mad community throws us under the bus. But the main point is that technology is scary and we should all be Amish. “Screens cause autism” is just this week’s variation of “screens are bad because the old man who yells at cloud is scared.” This is the same fearmongering bullshit people used to say about the radio, and before that, books with pictures in them, and before that, regular ass BOOKS. People like you have been wrong about the same thing for CENTURIES. New technologies cause change. GET OVER IT.

  6. My son was diagnosed with ASD and we removed screens based on my wife’s experiences as an Early Interventionist with a family she serviced and removed screens. We followed their lead and did the same and our son is now nuerotypical or normal. He was addicted to screens constantly spun around and other ASD symptoms. Now he loves to learn about butterflies, sharks, and jump on trampolines and get dirty in the creek behind our home; like a 6 year old boy should. This article is true it can work! If not we are all destined for the world of Ready Player One and The Walking “Virtual” Dead.

  7. Many years ago, I worked in special ed and noticed that many students were wrongly diagnosed with autism. As a result, I question the claim that for the kids that taking the screen away allegedly help, really had an accurate diagnosis.

    And before anyone flames me for doubting the validity of autism, I don’t. I am friends with many people on the autistic spectrum and definitely understand the issues. I also have similar type issues.

    Anyway, I will stop here since Daniel has done a great job in summarizing the issues. By the way, I find it ironic that if biological psychiatry had posted an article like this, everyone would be all over it. But yet, when a non psychiatrist like Marilyn does, it is accepted at face value without critical analysis.

  8. What the hell is this article, It’s not really autism so much as it is not enough social activity. You see, when people don’t have enough practice their skills start to decline they just need some practice and also. IN WHAT EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES DOES THIS HAPPEN. The parents have to do something wrong for such circumstances to happen.

  9. I got rid of my TV over 20 years ago and have not watched it since. I developed a strong dislike for it, then a complete intolerance. I can’t believe people even sleep with the thing yapping away! I cannot tolerate much of radio, either. Computer is a good thing so long as I am typing. I cannot see the point in passively watchig youtubes. I credit “no TV’ as one reason why my mind is sharp, I have sharp hearing, am generally happy and am physically fit.

    Plus cable is a complete waste of hard-earned disability check, let’s face it. That’s ironic since the only reason I’m still on it is no one will hire me.

  10. Marilyn,
    Thank you for highly important and profound article.

    I have been screaming the same message from the rooftops for the past 10 years. Finally, I am not alone fighting this battle!

    I am an Occupational Therapist. I have been treating kids with autism for more than 10 years and I have been observing the same phenomenon on a daily basis in my practice. I have seen a transformation in many of my clients once technology removed from their lives and replaced with activities specifically selected to meet a child’s developmental needs. Once parents, teachers, pediatricians see the drastic changes in a child’s social/emotional/communication development, they think it is magic, but it is just common sense! In some kids, we see the changes within days of a child’s lifestyle modification.

    Obviously, there are and always have been kids with “classic” autism which is not related to technology overuse. I work with many incredible parents who do everything they can to help their children diagnosed with autism, including eliminating technology, and despite their best efforts, their children continue to exhibit symptoms of autism as their symptoms are not related to early exposure to technology. Nevertheless, in either “classic” autism or “virtual” autism, elimination of technology from a child’s early development is crucial, but in cases of “virtual” autism, it makes a drastic difference.

    Visit my blog where I also write about the negative impact of technology on a child’s nervous system http://www.YourOT.com

  11. Anna Freud was wrong, and I think you are making a mistake by quoting her. All Autistic children can play and the vast majority do. However, intensive therapies such as ABA (Autistic conversion therapy) may use selective punishments to condition a child into neglecting their own need to play. That might be the pattern you observed.

  12. Daniel

    Do you think too much screen time for some children could be harmful and how do you think it should be limited if necessary?

    And BTW, I find your views on autism to be very provocative, challenging, and educational; although I am not sure I agree with the entirety of your analysis.


    • Too much of anything can be harmful. And I do mean anything. A few months ago I staged a protest against a hate group selling hyperbaric oxygen chambers as a miracle for cure for various ailments and non-ailments, because it’s not only snake oil but dangerous snake oil. The procedure delivers, demonstrably, medically, too much oxygen.

      While I can technically concede the point that there is such a thing as too much screen use, I still have to retort with the question of why we are focused on screens? No parents are expressing concern over too much paper time, or too many books, or any other arbitrarily limited learning tool. And yet there is a much stronger body of evidence than there is on screen time, pointing to harmful effects of excessively prescribed homework.

      Children and consent together always make a nuanced issue, but we can at least ask if the intervention is being done for the benefit of the child, or the convenience of the parents. If the goal of the intervention is make a child not Autistic any more, or not display observable behavior that overlaps with autism, then it is certainly only for the convenience of the parents.

      I am aware that some of the writing styles I choose are provocative, however I don’t agree that the views themselves are. At least not in this context. The mission of Mad In America is (paraphrased) to challenge the dominant paradigm of psychiatric care. Attempting to “cure autism” because well, that’s the label you’ve been given and it’s a mental illness so we better get rid of it, does nothing of the sort. As one Facebook commenter pointed out, there is nothing scientific nor social justice in this article, and the part that is psychiatric is pro-psychiatry. All we’ve accomplished here is continuing to alienate Autistic people from the Mad community, keeping the world less safe for both Autistic people and Mad people.

      • Thanks for the response.

        Just to clarify my use of the word “provocative,” I meant that in the positive sense of the word, in that I do believe we need to be “provocative” in today’s world in order to effectively challenge an oppressive status quo.

        I do wish the author of this blog would respond to some of your challenging criticisms so we could all learn more through a back and forth type dialogue on this important topic.


        • I could be wrong, but it doesn’t appear that Daniel has any interest in dialogue. He seems to be in full attack and defend mode. Unfortunately, in my opinion, he seems to be fighting a ghost enemy from battles in his past as Marilyn is CLEARLY NOT disparaging real autism or anyone in that community. This article is about a pseudo-autism that can be fixed simply by giving children the attention and love they need. That’s a huge difference from the little I know of people who have genuine autism.

          • I’m sorry, but you still talk about “fixing”. I’m agree with Daniel here. There is no such thing as “normal”. And autism is not a sickness as cancer, so it can’t presents medical symtomps.

  13. Hi Marilyn,
    I just wanted to thank you so much for spreading awareness on this phenomenon that is happening with with our young children.
    I work in the field of early intervention serving many children with ASD diagnosis as a specialty. While working with a child over 3 years ago that had red flags for ASD the parents decided to remove screens of their own desire due to their feelings that he was more interactive when screen media was off. This child made more progress in one month at age 2.5 than I had ever seen during my time working with children this age level with this severity of symptoms, that it was just mind blowing to me. The family continued to remove screens from his view over the next several months and all symptoms of ASD resolved and he presented with only a language delay that resolved several months later.
    I was then able to replicate these same results with my own son at age 3.5 that had a diagnosis of ASD by removing screens from
    his view and again placing emphasis on social interaction. In a matter of months, he was no longer showing signs of ASD and just again like the child mentioned early exhibited only a language delay. We had him retested at 9 months after removing all screens reutilizing the ADOS test and he no longer scored for ASD.
    Both my son and this other child I speak of both had high amounts of screen media their first few years of life. Both were given huge amounts of social interaction time in replacement of the screens when they were eliminated. I do believe that there is hope for many of our young children experiencing these same symptoms or diagnosis that had the same history of high exposure in early childhood. I have yet to recommend it to a family that hasn’t seen extremely positive results very rapidly. No matter what therapy is being used…in my experiences it truly seems to make it more effective.
    My own son was going to 8 therapy services weekly with very little and slow progress. Once screens were removed, within weeks he had begun meeting goals he had been working on for months on end with little progress.
    I hope to provide awareness to providers and parents by sharing the AAP’s recommendations for screen time before two in one of the links below and the harmful nature that over exposure can cause on early development as well as the association that was found over 10 years by Dr. Michael Waldman et.al in the following link to the article, “Does Television Cause Autism.”
    I hope that by providing these resources along with your article and other’s testimonies, that more families with this high exposure and early history may learn of this free therapeutic method, that removing screens during a young child’s life that has ASD or is exhibiting signs of ASD can help them to achieve their maximum potential.
    My son was once given a diagnosis of low IQ and ASD at 3.5 years old and within 9 months scored in normal IQ range and no ASD using the same testing tools. He continues on this same tragectory now that his screen viewing is highly montored and many other social activities are in place. Thank you so much for your work to make this available so more families and children can benefit from this knowlege and method that is free to everyone. I have no doubt that true “classical autism” exists, but doubt that that rate and increase is what we are experiencing today based on my experiences and understanding of the literature.
    Lori Frome

  14. From this to the Chinese “digital detox” boot camp the step is short.
    Anyway, they both rely on the same idea, they share the same aim.
    When I was a child, I used to spend all my time reading books. There was no internet, no much TV (I’m not from USA, maybe the digital boom arrived a bit later here). At first, it was sheer curiosity and joy. I didn’t need anything else than books. Oh, and nature too. While other children were playing in the school courtyard, I was alone in the grass looking for insects and little stones. Then it (the books, the nature) became also a refuge, a way to handle the stress, the fear, the frustrations from first bullying episodes.
    I was diagnosed with autism and schizoaffective disorder.
    What you don’t understand is that the point is not the screen exposure, as the problem is not the stimming. Videogames and internet can be a strong interest, a passion, as stimming is self-expression of joy or anxiety or other emotions. The “problem” is only when there is too much stress to handle, too many bad emotions.
    I’m not sure exist something as “virtual autism” and “true autism”. As many neurotipical stims when they are nervous, so they could became obsessed or find a refuge in a single activity forgetting the world outside. You are focusing on the wrong thing, you are focusing on the finger instead of the moon.

  15. a) this is Romania. Eastern Europe is very bad at diagnosing autism in general; b) these were children who apparently were long-time in a children’s hospital – why? presumably because they were institutionalized as autistic (or developmentally delayed) before being given screens; c) of course autistic children will prefer spending time in front of a screen rather than playing with other children – it’s kind of the definition of autism; d) autistic children benefit from screens, which in many cases is their only way of communicating with each other and other people (see augmentative and assistive communication devices); e) for that reason, depriving autistic children of screens is not making them non-autistic, it is just making them more isolated and thus should be seen as a human rights violation; f) France is an equally bad example, where autistic children are treated with psychoanalysis and “packing” and mothers are still blamed as refrigerator mothers – never trust a French psychiatrist; g) how many 4 year olds, autistic or not, would do more than repeat words without knowing what they mean? seems perfectly age-appropriate; h) there are not less autistic children in non-rich countries, there are simply less psychiatrists in poor countries (often only one or two adult psychiatrists in an entire country and no child psychiatrists at all) – that’s why less children are diagnosed there; i) that said, of course parents should spend as much time with their autistic child as possible and build a relationship with them, on the child’s terms, respecting their autistic identity and interests, using screens to communicate with the child if necessary

  16. This is like saying that we have rising levels of paraplegia because people’s legs go to sleep when they sit for long periods of time. Total nonsense. Lack of social interaction resulting in lack of social skills is called Reactive Attachment Disorder, and is treated in a different way than autism because it is about taking someone who is not autistic and reconnecting them with who they really are, socially, rather than teaching them how to navigate a world, which is not designed for their neurology and needs, by denying themselves access to their natural selves in pubic.

  17. Hello

    Dear Marylin Wedge

    I am kindly typing from France (where, contrarily to what you asserted in another article, there are quite a lot of people with ADHD, though the beautiful doctrines of Freud and co that still permeates psychological field, and healthy educational custom of four meals per day being obviously insufficient in eradicating this condition).

    I want to kindly notice you, first, that reliable autism diagnosis are made in CRA (Centres Ressources Autisme), not in hospitals, and that the belief Ducanda holds of being able to “cure” CRA diagnosed autistic kids only pertains to her own (delusional ?) misinterpretation of a single-lined sentence in a phone conversation.

    Then, in utter opposition with your statements, there have been no “case studies” made by peer-controlled scientific authorities. Maybe because what Ducanda and Terrasse are putting forward is NOT study based. All what we have are clinical observations coupled with Bucarest-coming theories that the recent rise in autism cases has to do with the development of digital technology use.

    The so-called “excellent” videos of Ducanda are filled with scientific vagueness (moreover, revealing her complete ignorance regarding autism symptoms and digital technologies), testimonies of “miraculous” recoveries from so-called formerly autistic children parents, and colorful assertions in which their is “no autism in poor countries”, boasting a trip to Africa as the ultimate cure for screen-alienated children and their sorry tutors.

    There is actually no scientific evidence backing it up, and she is frequently referring to studies and observations in America and elsewhere… just as you have been doing when you wrote about the overwhelming pertinence of French studies about “virtual autism” yourself. Which is non-existent.

    Between Romania, France, Algeria and Marylin Wedge, there is obviously a ping-pong game based on nothingness (apart some yet-to-be-defined observations and obscure neo-freudian ideologies).

    Also, it is a question of months before Ducanda will have to swallow her words for medical deontology unrespect.