TV decreases the rate mental retardation and increases the rate of autism

TV is bad for children. Wait, no it’s not. Yes, it is! And it’s really bad for their hearts!

Here’s the latest paper on the topic, from Michael Waldman, Sean Nicholson, and Nodir Adilov. Using a natural experiment to rule out the possibility of reverse causation, the authors found that TV watching decreases the rate of mental retardation, but increases the rate of autism.

The authors hypothesize that, consistent with earlier research, “for the typical child television watching at age two improves cognitive development and decreases diagnoses of mental retardation.”

In contrast, TV might be particularly bad news for kids vulnerable to autism, because for some children diagnosed with the condition, it is not the genetics alone which triggers the condition, but rather that the genes create a vulnerability to autism that is sometimes triggered by early childhood television watching.