Most people would prefer to lose their right arm than lose their eyesight. It is scary for a sighted person to think of the possibility of losing one’s eyesight, yet it happens to people every day for various reasons. One of these reasons can be autism.
Autism affects different children in different ways, which is one of the reasons why it is such a problem for doctors and therapists to treat it. One of the worst things that can have an effect on autistic children is a loss or diminution of visual perception or, to put it plainly, eyesight.
Naturally, if a child has problems seeing, then it makes learning even more difficult and it isolates that child even more than it was before, since a sensation of isolation is one of the foremost symptoms of autism. However, there are certain exercises that your child’s therapist can teach you which might help improve your child’s eyesight.
It is a characteristic of autism that the sufferer experiences sensory overload or distortion. It is as if the autistic child’s brain cannot deal with what it sees and hears quickly enough, so it sometimes shuts down.
Many autistic children also have trouble reading for this very reason, however, some individuals who are not autistic can also suffer from this difficulty. Some people with extreme dyslexia can undergo a comparable experience. If the parents of an autistic child have these problems too, then it could exacerbate the visual perception of the autistic child.
Some people, whether autistic, dyslexic or not have a problem with some colour combinations and some of those have a problem with black and white, which are of course the colours used on a book’s pages. It is possible to enhance the readability of a page of type by using the Irene Method, which involves putting a colour filter over the page thereby altering the black and white colour combination.
If the doctor or therapist of your child has not suggested the Irene Method, you could bring the issue up or just try it yourself. All you need is several sheets of different coloured cellophane. Blue, red, yellow and green are easy to find and you can overlay two or three of these to make even more colours.
Lay them over the page and see if your child finds one of them easier to read. You may even find that you find one of these new colour combinations easier for you as well. If this works, a pair of glasses with tinted lenses my help your child’s visual perception on a more permanent basis.
In the same way, some children’s visual perception is enhanced by replacing the regular white light incandescent or tube lights in the child’s bedroom with a light that is more comfortable on his or her eyes.
These different colour lights and different colour lenses can help your child better judge depth or perspective and can help lessen the confusion that sensory overload can cause. If you can accomplish this, you will be making a big difference to your child’s quality of life.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with Designer Spectacles. If you want to know more, please go over to our web site at Spectacles Direct.
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