Autism

Based on Dr. Stephey’s experience with kids on the autism spectrum, an overwhelming majority have vision problems that have remained undiagnosed and untreated. These children should be evaluated for components of nutrition, retained primitive reflexes, something called a millisecond timing clock deficit, motion processing or magnocellular vision, eye focusing, eye tracking, eye teaming, working memory in executive function and visual-auditory integration, visual-cognitive skills, visual-spatial skills, and visual processing speed. If they aren’t, they’re most likely under-assessed, under-diagnosed and under-treated. Oftentimes, these kids get many different therapies: speech therapy, occupational therapy, maybe adaptive P.E. through the school district, ABA therapy as a behavioral therapy. But the missing factor in all of that is nobody's looking at the vision piece. Vision has a role in autism and autism spectrum disorders.

If your child has been diagnosed with Autism / Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD, contact Dr. Stephey for a comprehensive developmental eye exam or to learn more about the role of vision in Autism and ASD. For more resources on the vision connection to Autism, visit our Resource Pages.