The Bakersfield Voice
Vision and vision therapy in autism workshop offered
Vision and vision therapy in autism workshop offered
Topics: Education, children, vision, autism
Anonymous user Thu Oct 11, 2007 09:28:23 PDT
Viewed 251 times
0 responses 0 comments
On Saturday, September 29, the Kern Autism Network presented “Vision and Vision Therapy in Autism,” a workshop led by Dr. Penelope Suter. Dr. Suter is a Fellow of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development; Fellow of the American Board of Disability Analysts; and Fellow of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association. Her practice is located in Bakersfield.
“Vision is overlooked in autism,” said Dr. Suter. “It’s a huge part of sensory integration.”
The visual system takes up about a third of the brain. When vision works well, vision leads. When it does not work well, the world appears inconsistent and confusing. Vision therapy, or optometric visual training, helps individuals develop and better use their vision.
According to Dr. Suter, people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have more vision problems than the general population. Vision deficits are usually expressed as motor, speech and behavior deficits.
“In autism and neurological dysfunctions, people don’t know how to tell their eyes what to look for,” said Dr. Suter. “Typically where their attention goes, their eyes go. And where their eyes go, their attention goes.”
Dr. Suter stressed that there is a difference between eyesight and visual perception. “You have to be able to organize information coming into the eyes into an object before it’s any good to you.”
“When you are sitting in this room, there are more than a thousand pieces of information impinging on your eyes. You have to ignore that. You make eye movements so you can attend. Eye movements and attention are inextricably linked. If you cannot move your eyes to what you want to attend to, you will have a very hard time attending to it.”
Our visual system does not like deficits and will “fill in” missing information. “That is why it is so easy to miss visual problems,” said Dr. Suter. For instance, following brain injury, an entire half of the visual world can be missing, but the person is unaware of it. “The people walking into doors do not realize they have lost vision. Half of the entire world is gone from both eyes and they don’t know it. They have cognitive confusion because they get lost a lot.”
Dr. Suter stressed the importance of a thorough vision examination for children with special needs. “When your world expands and collapses, blurs in and out, it generates a lot of fear,” said Dr. Suter. “If the world is not stable, you cannot catch a ball. Kids with visual spatial dysfunction, the world shifts and changes. It is not a reliable place.”
Treatments include glasses, patching, and vision exercises. Special prism glasses can improve balance and motor dysfunctions by shifting the visual midline back to center. In some cases colored lenses aid vision by filtering specific wavelengths of light.
If you suspect your loved one with ASD may have a vision problem, contact a developmental optometrist for a comprehensive evaluation. More information is available at the Optometrists Network at www.visiontherapystories.org and Vision Help at www.visionhelp.com. Dr. Suter can be reached at 661 869-2010.
The Kern Autism Network provides support, awareness, information and education to families, professionals and the public throughout Kern County. For information about the organization and upcoming workshops, visit our website at www.kernautism.org
Kern Autism Network
www.kernautism.org
661 588-4235
| Send to a Friend | Report a Violation |
|
|