Seeing Through New Eyes

Dr Kaplan offers an accessible introduction to the treatment of visual dysfunction, a significant but neglected problem associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and other developmental disabilities.He identifies common autistic symptoms such as hand-flapping, poor eye contact and tantrums as typical responses to the confusion caused by vision disorder. He explains the effects of difficulties with ‘ambient vision' – the function that is usually impaired in autistic people – which include a lack of spatial awareness and trouble with coordination , and gives guidance on how to identify the visual deficits of nonverbal children, select prism lenses that will alter the visual field, and create individually tailored programmes of therapy in order to retrain the system.Seeing Through New Eyes is essential reading for parents of autistic children, professionals in the fields of autism, optometry and ophthalmology, psychology and education.