The Dr. Bill Takeshita Foundation

Last Modified: Sat, 18 Aug 2007

View other Common Causes of Vision Impairment

Autism is a condition of great concern to our society today. The number of children diagnosed with autism is growing at an epidemic rate. Although autism is not specifically a condition that affects the eyes, children with autism frequently have visual problems that may interfere with their general development, academic performance, and their ability to make eye contact.

Studies have shown that as much as 80% of what children learn during their developmental years comes through the visual system. Blurred sight, reduced depth perception, color blindness, double vision, and poor visual processing skills can have significant ramifications on the development of all children. The American Optometric Association recommends that all children have their vision evaluated at the ages of six months, three years, and five years. Unfortunately, many children with autism do not have expressive language, which makes assessment of vision nearly impossible. Fortunately, Developmental optometrists are trained to examine children with special needs. Specific tests can be performed to evaluate visual acuity, eye health, I muscle coordination, depth perception, peripheral vision, and visual processing skills.

Reduced eye contact is a common behavior of many children and adults with autism. Poor focusing (accommodation) skills, uncorrected nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, and poor eye teaming skills can affect eye contact. Corrective glasses, contact lenses, and focusing skills can correct these visual problems, which may improve eye contact skills.

Another common problem of children with autism is reduced visual processing skills. Visual perception is a skill that takes place in the visual centers of the brain. Children with poor visual processing skills may have normal clarity of sight but they are not able to perceive the relationship between different objects. They may have difficulty perceiving which shoe is for the right or left foot, have problems assembling basic puzzles, and they may have difficulty filtering out visual information, causing them to become overwhelmed in crowded or visually noisy environments. These visual perception problems affect academic development, social relationships, and many other aspects of daily life.

Recommendations

• Position students with autism away from rotating, flashing, and flickering visual stimuli. Children with autism often have difficulty filtering peripheral visual information and these types of stimuli are extremely distracting.
• Try to avoid the use of vertical and horizontal blinds with repetitive patterns. Similarly, wallpaper with repetitious patterns, as well as glossy paint should be avoided. These wall coverings cause significant visual distractions, which can interfere with visual attention
• Present objects near your eye level to attempt to develop eye contact skills. Quickly move the object from one side of your face to the other near your eyes to grasp the attention of the children. The rapid movement of such objects will activate the visual arousal centers.
• Encourage the use of blocks, puzzles, and other visual spatial activities to develop the visual processing regions of the brain.
• Provide visual demonstrations along with verbal language to help children to associate words they hear with objects and actions that they see.
• Consult with developmental optometrists for specific activities for the specific child.
• For more information, please see Low Vision Rehabilitation