Autism
Visual Problems may be more prevalent in Children with Autism
Studies have found that refractive errors, such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and/or astigmatism, may be more common in those with autism. These conditions require a simple pair of glasses to improve vision, some other conditions such as strabismus (often called cross-eye or squint), amblyopia (lazy eye), convergence and accomodation (focusing) problems will require earlier Neuro-Optometric intervention to allow child to have good vision as early as possible to allow other professionals to assist the child’s development.
Children with Autism can have poor visual skills such as
- poor visual attention
- inability to follow things with their eyes (or “tracking”).
- blur near vision
- missing cues that come from peripheral vision.
- double vision due to poor eye teaming
- eyes drifting out at times
In addition, some children with Autism have a visual-sensory problem which can lead to
- poor balance
- frequent knocking into things
- Photophobia (scared of lights)
- Toe walking
- Visual Overload in a place with much visual input
Standard vision screenings at schools do not assess the learning related visual skills, as they are designed to detect the common refractive errors such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism. Properly diagnosing and correcting vision problems isn’t a cure-all. However, as Dr. Temple Grandin (A renowned Advocate with Autism) states, “a child who can see his world clearly has a much better chance of benefiting from other therapies.”
At Vision and Perception Practice, we provide the latest equipments and skills to assess a child’s eye tracking matched with norms, visual perceptual skills, visual information processing skills, and more to fully understand their learning abilities.
Read: Dr. Temple Grandin’s comments on Autism and Visual Perceptual skills
http://news.cision.com/college-of-optometrists-in-vision-development/r/a-missing-piece-to-the-autism-puzzle–college-of-optometrists-in-vision-development-shares-the-visua,c9567587
Read: Eyes hold key in therapy of autistic kids
https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2017/apr/02/eyes-hold-key-in-therapy-of-autistic-kids-1588936.html
Read: Understanding the Visual Symptoms of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.covd.org/resource/resmgr/ovd40-3/article_understandingvisuals.pdf
Read: Not Autistic or Hyperactive. Just Seeing Double at Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/health/11visi.html?_r=2&ex=1190260800&en=2&oref=login&referer=http%253A%252F%252Fm.facebook.com
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