Autism and Visual Impairment: a Review of the Literature

Maggie Butchart; Joseph J. Long; Michael Brown; Anne McMillan; Janice Bain; Thanos Karatzias

doi:10.1007/s40489-016-0101-1

Autism and Visual Impairment: a Review of the Literature

Maggie Butchart^*, Joseph J. Long, Michael Brown, Anne McMillan, Janice Bain, Thanos Karatzias

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

10 Citations (Scopus)

281 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Purpose: This review presents the evidence on the prevalence of visual impairments in children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and the similar behavioural traits associated with both visual impairment and autism. Method: A systematic literature review was conducted using online databases. Results: Seven studies explored the incidence of visual impairments in people with ASD and found a higher incidence of strabismus (squint) (8.3%) than in a comparable child population (1.5 to 5.3%). Eleven studies identified behavioural traits common to both autistic and visually impaired populations. The majority were small-scale screening studies using varied methodologies, constituting an emerging field of research. Conclusion: Further large-scale, multicentre studies are required to accurately identify prevalence rates of ophthalmic conditions in people with ASD. There is a small but evolving evidence base that establishes behavioural and linguistic traits common to both visual impairment and autism.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	118-131
Journal	Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume	4
Issue number	2
Early online date	05 Jan 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-016-0101-1
Publication status	Early online date - 05 Jan 2017
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

ASD
Autism
Sight loss
Visual impairment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Psychiatry and Mental health
Behavioral Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Developmental Neuroscience

Access to Document

10.1007/s40489-016-0101-1Licence: CC BY

Autism and Visual Impairment: a Review of the Literature
Copyright 2017 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 485 KBLicence: CC BY

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Cite this

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