Vision Therapy for Autistic Spectrum (ASD)

All too often, it is an undiagnosed vision problem that’s at the root of the struggle to focus at a distance (such as the board), maintain concentration, or skip lines while reading.

Undiagnosed vision problems can result in frustration and boredom and impact the lives of children with Autistic Spectrum (ASD).

If your child displays poor attention in school, a thorough eye evaluation (also known as a functional eye exam), may conclude that an issue is, in fact, a functional vision problem, which can be corrected with a highly effective vision therapy program.

A ’20/20 Sight Test’ is Not Enough

Your child may pass the 20/20 vision screening exam with flying colors or wear eyeglasses, yet continue to struggle to see the board or read from a book.

A basic eye exam doesn’t examine how well the eyes work together as a team, how quickly the eyes focus when moving from one visual plane to another, or how smoothly the eyes move across the page when reading.

The only way to ensure that all the essential visual skills are working correctly is by undergoing a functional vision exam.

Vision Problems can Significantly Impact Children with ASD

80% of learning is related to a child’s visual skills.

Vision problems, such as blurry vision, headaches from eye strain or itchy eyes will cause a child to struggle with reading, writing, and homework assignments — similar to what a child with a learning difficulty would experience

• Eye tracking skills – eyes following a line of print
• Eye teaming skills – two eyes working together as a synchronized team
• Binocular vision – simultaneously blending the images from both eyes into one image
• Accommodation – eye focusing
• Visual-motor integration – eye-hand coordination
• Visual perception – visual memory, visual form perception, and visualization

Any of these can lead a child to struggle to make sense of the information taken in through his or her eyes.

Visual processing issues, such as dyslexia, can cause your child to experience difficulties when reading, leading him or her to confuse words and word-order.

This makes bright children seem like they perpetually can’t grasp the subject at hand, which, in turn, can result in secondary behavioral issues.

How can Vision Therapy Help my Child?

Vision therapy is an individually-tailored regimen of eye exercises made to improve and strengthen visual functions and retrain the brain to interpret visual input more accurately.

Vision therapy includes in-office and home exercises, visual aids, or eyeglasses, and involves close monitoring and follow-up appointments.

Vision therapy aims to improve:

• Eye teaming and tracking
• Focusing
• Hand-eye coordination
• Visual perception

Vision Therapy is often compared to physical therapy, but for the eyes.

Improvements in a child can be seen fairly soon, but it can take up to 3-6 months to realize significant results. Naturally, this depends on each patient, their unique therapy regimen and their compliance to the program.