Visual Perception Treatment For Autistic Children

Most people would prefer to lose their right arm than lose their eyesight. It is frightening for a sighted person to think of the possibility of losing one's eyesight, yet it happens to people each 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 help it. One of the worst things that can affect autistic children is a loss or diminution of visual perception or, to put it plainly, eyesight.

Naturally, if a child has issues seeing, then it makes learning even more of a problem and it isolates that child even more than it was before, since a feeling of isolation is one of the main 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 feature of autism that the sufferer experiences sensory overload or distortion. It is as if the autistic child's brain cannot process what it sees and hears promptly enough, so it sometimes shuts down.

Numerous autistic children also have trouble reading for this very reason, however, some people who are not autistic can also suffer from this problem. Some people with extreme dyslexia can undergo a similar 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 difficulty with certain colour combinations and some of those have a difficulty with black and white, which are obviously the colours used on a book's pages. It is possible to improve the readability of a page of type by using the Irene Method, which involves putting a colour filter over the page thus altering the black and white colour blend.

If the doctor or therapist of your child has not suggested the Irene Method, you could bring the issue up or simply try it yourself. All you require 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 might even find that you find one of these new colour combinations easier for you too. 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 manner, some children's visual perception is improved 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 create. If you can accomplish this, you will be making a big difference to your child's quality of life.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Designer Spectacles. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Spectacles Direct.