by Dr. Arthur S. Seiderman
March, 2011
Published at www.lancasteronline.com
I first came in contact with Autism in 1972, when I was writing a paper in partial fulfillment of my masters degree requirements. No one ever heard of autism; or, hardly anyone. Only a few had written on the subject. Leo Kanner, John Hopkins University, was undoubtedly the leader in the field. Others included: Bernard Rimland, Bruno Bettleheim, Hans Asperger, and Ole Ivar Lovaas.
The Mayo Clinic defines autism — Autism is one of a group of serious developmental problems called autism spectrum disorders that appear in early childhood — usually before age 3. Though symptoms and severity vary, all autism disorders affect a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
Symptoms are generally found in three critical areas of development: social interaction, language, and behavior. Rigid, stereotyped, repetitive patterns of unusual behavior are frequently present. Sleep problems occur in about 40 to 70 percent of people with autism.
Decades ago, Bettelheim theorized that children became autistic because of cold and emotionally distant mothers, women that he referred to as “refrigerator mothers.” Careful family studies have fully disproved that the development of autism in children is due to faulty parenting. This is very important to communicate repeatedly to the parents of the autistic child. “Autism” is a common term for what authors of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) chose to call “PDD,” Pervasive Developmental Disorder.
While there is no cure for autism, early treatment can make a big difference in the lives of many children with this disorder. These treatments may include: psychological counseling for the parents, who need direction and advisement on how to deal with the different and unusual behaviors; occupational therapy using sensory integration therapy and/or physical therapy; communication therapy utilizing the use of keyboards, letter boards, word boards, etc., all with the use of a facilitator; auditory integration training which allows the child to listen to specially prepared sounds through headphones; and vision therapy.
Pat Wyman describes autism, “People with autism have difficulty processing and responding to information from their senses.” Vision, being the dominant sense, raises all sorts of questions about the importance of how the autistic individual processes and then RESPONDS to visual data. Is it possible that they see things differently than we do? Of course it is possible! We, all, do not see the same things to begin with. In fact, many autistic people turn their head to one side, or look out of the corners of their eyes.
Frequently a program of vision therapy with or without the use of ambient lenses is very helpful. This type of non invasive therapeutic intervention allows the patient to process and, more importantly, interpret the world around them differently. In some cases, changes are noted immediately.
The ability to organize visual space and gain peripheral stability is one of the goals of vision therapy . This will allow the patient to better attend and appreciate central vision and gain more efficient eye teaming (binocular coordination) and visual information processing.
Most of us really don’t appreciate or understand the role of vision in our lives. What we see defines, to a large extent, who we are. Therefore, if we change how and what we see, significant changes occur in the individual’s interpretation and understanding of the world around them. This, in turn, allows the autistic child to function in a different manner. Patients with whom we have worked with usually make very good progress, as reported to us from their parents. It is important to decide which therapies might be most helpful with each individual. Remember each child is different as are their needs. With the appropriate interventions, the autistic child can be helped. To that end, we, professionals, are committed.
More information relating to autism will be provided in a later column. For more information now, go to the website; www.helpaddvisiontherapy.com. Or call 717-656-0534. Dr. Arthur Seiderman (Leola, PA) an optometrist and psychologist, who is a graduate of The Gesell Institute’s program of Child Developent at Yale University, has written several books, lectured throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe. His work has been translated into six languages. He taught graduate level courses at Penn State University for many years, is a past president of The Disabled Reader Group of The International Reading Association (IRA), and maintains his private practice in Leola.
