Page 159 - July-August 2020

emotion and intentions in others. The  There is no medical intervention clear, single, comfortable binocular
child does not respond with a head or detection for autism. vision and enhance visual perception
turn when his/her name is called and oculomotor skills by providing
which is a very important and early AUTISM AND VISION lenses, yoked prism or vision therapy.
clue. The child does not make eye PROBLEMS Undiagnosed visual impairment is
contact while asking for something. Visual problems in autistic likely to severely affect the quality
The child is self-involved i.e. they individuals are very common. Often, of life.
do not play interactive games with the signs of these vision problems
parents or other children. They can be masked by the behaviours CAUSE OF AUTISM
prefer to have solitary playtime and that autistic individuals use to cope Research indicates that in the
pretend/imaginative playtime which with the sensory overload of the majority of cases, genetics could be
children normally participate in when world around them. The behaviours the basic factor for ASD. Children
they are around 18 months of age is due to autism and vision problems born to older parents are at a higher
delayed or lacking. risk of having autism. Studies have
may include lack of eye contact,
INTEGRAL STATISTICS staring at spinning objects or light shown that among identical twins if
etc. Autistic people may also face one child has autism, the other will
 In 2018, Centers for Disease problems while coordinating their be affected about 36 to 95 per
Control and Prevention central and peripheral vision; for cent of the time. In non-identical
determined that approximately example, when asked to follow an twins, if one child has autism then
1 in 37 boys and 1 in 151 girls object with their eyes, they usually the other is affected about 31 per
were diagnosed with an autism do not look directly at the object cent of the time. Parents who have a
spectrum disorder. This denotes –instead they scan or look at the child with ASD have a 2 to 18 per
that boys are four times more cent chance of having a second child
likely to be diagnosed with side of the object. Eye movement who is also affected.
autism than girls. disorders and crossed eyes are DIAGNOSIS OF AUTISM
very common.
 Most children are still being
diagnosed after 4 years of age, Many autistic people are visually Diagnosing ASD can be difficult
though autism can be reliably defensive, thus avoid contact with since there is no medical test to
diagnosed by as early as age specific visual input and might have diagnose the disorder. Doctors
2. Minority groups tend to be a hypersensitive vision. They have look at the child’s behaviour and
diagnosed later and less often. difficulty with visually holding still development to make a diagnosis.
 Early intervention affords the best and frequently rely on a constant ASD can sometimes be detected
opportunity to support healthy scanning of visual information in an at 18 months or younger. By age
development and deliver benefits attempt to gain meaning. 2, a diagnosis by an experienced
across the lifespan. TREATMENT OF VISUAL professional can be considered very
reliable. However, many children
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH do not receive a final diagnosis until
AUTISM much later. This delay deprives the
Activities for vision therapy respective child of the urgent medical
can be used to stimulate general attention that they may need.
visual arousal. The goals of the All children should be screened
treatment are to help the autistic for developmental delays and
individual organise visual space disabilities (and specifically for
and gain peripheral stability so that ASD) during regular doctor visits.
he or she can better attend to and Additional screening might be
appreciate the central vision, also needed if a child is at high risk for
gain more efficient eye coordination ASD (e.g having a sibling or another
and visual information processing. family member with an ASD) or if
Once autism is diagnosed, the role behaviours associated with ASD
of the optometrist is to provide a are present.

JULY-AUG 2020 | 155 Autism