It is not unusual to hear about autistic children in families. According to a family doctor, the number of autistic children is increasing every year and what is worse is that parents are responsible for this increase.

In recent years, parents have been buying iPads or other tablets for their children to keep them quiet and relaxed. Unfortunately, this is causing autistic-like behavior in some children although it might not be at a severe level. Tablets consume the attention of children and disconnect them from their surroundings in such a way that they stop communicating with people, discovering new things and playing with other children.

You can recognize an autistic child through obvious symptoms, such as the inability to communicate and speak their mind, the inability to make eye contact, constant crying for no reason, and a feeling of anxiety when in new surroundings, or around new people, or when a tablet is taken away.

Sadly, many parents do not recognize these symptoms early enough to get the right treatment. Instead, they choose to believe that their child is shy and just not very social.

My brother is mildly autistic and received the right treatment at an early age. He grew better until my parents, like many others, bought him a tablet. After only one week, he got worse and began to stutter. His doctor was shocked by the regression in my brother’s functionality. When she learned that we had given him a tablet, she asked us to immediately take it away. The doctor mentioned that there have been cases of children who became autistic because they were exposed to tablets before they could even crawl.

Therefore, in light of my brother’s regression, the experience of other families and the doctor’s advice, I sincerely advise parents who read this to take tablets away from their children. Encourage them to discover the world around them and socialize with people. We are responsible for them. They are the future and we do not want the future to be mentally crippled.

Nada Jan