Most people would rather lose their right arm than lose their eyesight. It is scary for a sighted person to consider 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 so difficult 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 bluntly, eyesight.

Of course, if a child has problems 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 foremost symptoms of autism. However, there are a few exercises that your child’s therapist can teach you which may 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 deal with what it sees and hears quickly 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 difficulty. Some people with extreme dyslexia can undergo a similar experience. If the parents of an autistic child have these problems as well, then it could exacerbate the visual perception of the autistic child.

Some crowd, whether autistic, dyslexic or not have a problem with certain colour combinations and some of those have a problem with black and white, which are obviously the colours used on a book’s pages. It is possible to enhance the readability of a page of type by using the Irene Method, which involves putting a colour filter on top of 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 just try it yourself. All you need 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 may 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 way, some children’s visual perception is enhanced 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 reduce the confusion that sensory overload can cause. If you can achieve this, you will be constructing a big difference to your child’s quality of life.

If you are concerned about protecting children with mental health disorders or Child Safety in general, just pop along to our website.