I was reading People Vs the Machine and it had me thinking.

I’ve said for ages I believe autism is evolution with a huge part of genetics and environmental factors mixed in.

So what if it is purely evolution and environmental and genetics have nothing do to it, what if they are actually on to something.?

Z, he can talk if he so wishes and there’s lots of children out there with selective mutism.

Why do they need to talk?

How often when out and about do we just give them a phone or iPad to help with calming them. I do get in cases we have to. Last weekend we gave him a phone so we could have a drink, then epic meltdown as were dragging him back to the car. Did he need that phone? Or was it more because he was jumping about and being a child and we were getting looked at? Now it’s the norm for children to be sat at restaurants with a screen in front of them.

I get respite for Z, one of these reasons is I wanted him seen in the community, I wanted people to know who is is. He can’t or rather won’t tell them his name and where he lives, I’m pretty confident he knows this, well he knows the directions to home and nans.

When he goes for respite they sometimes go to McDonald’s where Z is now at the stage of ordering his food and waiting for it. But he doesn’t have to talk, he goes presses what he wants on a machine and takes a seat, come on if he had a card he’d just use contactless and he wouldn’t t even worry about money. When he’s older if he can’t get a job I’m hoping he’d be able to get pip so money in the bank and spend away. Like the post I read how many times did they interact with anyone? It’s all computer. No need to talk to anyone. That means no jobs to be had either!

Z in 15 years time quite possibly will not need to speak. He can read, he can spell, he can type what he wants to on YouTube with the search bar and find what he needs. He can go to a restaurant and order food and not have to say a word. The advances in technology who knows what the world will be like in 15 years time, 15 years ago I’d walk into the bank and it would have 8-10 cashiers now there’s 3 computers. Tesco there wasn’t such a thing as self scan and what’s the ones now you scan going around 15 years time there’ll be a Tesco drive through!

They say people with autism don’t care what others think, why would they need to if they don’t have to talk to anyone? A computer isn’t going to care they’ve not said please or thank you.

The whole argument of autism wasn’t about when I was young, yes neither was Mount Everest but it was still there we didn’t know about it. Now we do so they both exist. Technology wasn’t where it’s at either, we can all remember walking to our friends if they weren’t there we’d walk back, we had to talk. Of course there were people who didn’t we see them they were hidden away so acceptance have come a long way, maybe that’s because there is actually more? Statistics say there are more people being diagnosed.

With autism on the rise so is mental health, wonder if that’s a connection to technology too? See these children’s photo and so many comments aw lush babe, you look beautiful, oh no I don’t you do etc etc, to you look like a s**t or you’re ugly, would these people say that to their faces, no I highly doubt it.

Maybe we all need to go back to basics, back to talking to one another, yes I talk to Z all the time, it’s a one way conversation! People say children learn from their parents but if they don’t have the opportunity to learn they’ll never talk. I can take Z to speech and language every day, but if that role play isn’t going to be every day life is there a point? I banned Z’ s iPad for months, now he has it very rarely and it gets taken off him he may scream shout and wreck my house and yes I understand that when he has it he is in control of what ever it is he is doing. That’s good too right?

Maybe if more people used people and not the machines they’d bring people back?