Headline tells parents to torture possibly ASD toddlers

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CALLING ALL ASPIES! A lot of young kids need our help. The author of this piece of crap didn't even bother mentioning this is an autistic trait. So, it is encouraging parents of young autistic boys to torture their children by forcing them to do things they can't. PLEASE take two minutes out of your day to complain on the Daily Mail FB and Twitter pages using the hashtags "takeitdown" and "autism". This is the least we can do to protect young Aspies who can't defend themselves.

Look into my eyes! Parents told toddler boys who avoid eye contact will grow in to aggressive teenagers

I am not sure to believe the article. It sounded like full of crap.

It's hard to believe the article either. It's not implying anyone to torture someone, why would you think parents would torture their kids? I would be careful in how you choose your words..

I am living in Ireland and the Mail comes from England just across the water.


People who read this rag are really stupid people the Mail aims at this readership.

A lot of forum users on other sites will give you abuse if you use the Mail as your source for a story.


I have no issue using the word stupid either.

A stupid person is a person that is willfully ignorant and has zero interest in learning.

The one thing about people on the Autistic spectrum is their love of detail myself included well people who read that rag have the attention span of Goldfish and they don't want or like details or facts in their reading.

The Mail is not even the worst publication there is another NEWSPAPER called the Sun that makes the Mail look intellectual.

Here is a quote taken from another forum.

That's why it's called tabloid news. The New York Post and Daily News would be the US equivalent to the Daily Mail and The Sun. Btw The Sun and NYP are owned by Rupert Murdoch.

There is the cockroach behind all these publications and news channels.

This man is an Australian but I don't hold it against them.

However Mr Murdoch my I offer you two fingers from all people on the Autism spectrum around the world I don't claim to speak for them all but I would not hold your breath waiting for any of them to disagree.

In the interest of honesty I will admit I subscribe to this mans satellite TV service as it is way ahead of the competition.

There is still no excuse for gutter journalism.

Actually, there has been some research lately, though admittedly the sample size is very small, that seems to demonstrate that forced eye contact, forced cuddling, and forced social interaction, if administered frequently enough, in large enough doses, early enough in infancy, can in effect force an autistic brain to prune away the correct circuits to become, in essence, wired more like a typical brain.

So, actually, no matter how miserable forced eye contact makes you, practiced on a toddler, it just might make their adult life less a story of self-hate, isolation, failure, and misery than, say, our lives are.

Well, it's a different time than when I was being raised. I wouldn't say I was forced to hug, for instance----I was just raised, part-time, by a very demonstrative person (she called herself my "part-time mother"). She taught me all the social things like eye contact, a firm handshake, how to behave publicly / socially, etc. I wasn't "forced" to do any of these things; I felt it was just a part of a child's learning. When I didn't "get" something----which was most of the time----she repeated the lesson / procedure / whatever, again and again, until I DID get it. Someone might call that torture.... I probably said something like: "Why do I have to do that?", and she probably said, something like: "Because you have to learn how to behave". I'm extremely grateful that I learned these things. My mother just wanted me to sit still and shut-up.

I really feel sorry for all the people on here----expecially the adults----who weren't taught these things as a child, and are suffering so terribly, now. If I had been raised solely by my mother, I probably would've been just like them....

There's a big difference between "encouraging" eye contact and forcing it, which is basically what the original article suggests. There's a big difference between doing it to a child who is able to comprehend WHY you're doing it, and doing it to a toddler who would have no such comprehension.

Encouraging Eye Contact May Disturb Autistic Kids' Thinking

Eye contact is torture.

I remember my mom telling me she or dad had to hold one of my favorite toys up to their faces so I could look at them. My psychiatrist called it aggressive therapy. I still avoided eye contact when I was older. I don't know if it was forced eye contact my parents were doing. They always had me look at their mouths because it was part of my speech therapy. I had to see how words were formed and I used to just look around whenever I heard talking because I didn't know where it came from. I remember knowing as small child where words came from. I don't know if that was an assumption on my mom's part or if I really didn't know at first and then I did and still didn't understand eye contact. I don't even know if I did it as an infant before I lost my hearing. I never even asked if I showed any signs before I got sick or if I was a normal baby. I know I was healthy but I was known for being quiet. I had to teach myself to do eye contact as an adult. I still have troubles with it when I am shy or nervous. It's always with my boss or co workers and people I am not familiar with and my son's teacher. But in my home, no problem.