Health & Wellness - Jan 17

FAMILY VISION
–COLUMN PROVIDED BY–
Family Eyecare Associates
105 Crossfield Drive, Versailles, KY 40383
859.879.3665 | www.myfamilyvision.com
www.kentuckyvisiontherapy.com
Autism and Eyesight:
PRISMS HELP GET SYSTEMS IN SYNC
by Dr. Rick Graebe,
Family Eyecare Associates and Vision Therapy
It may surprise
you to learn eyesight
and autism
spectrum disorders have a connection.
One of the major symptoms of
autism is a lack of eye contact. Few
people with autism have trouble with
their eyesight. The problem is with
the person’s ambient visual system.
The ambient system is concerned
with things going on around us in
the background. It generally filters
everything out for us because noticing
every little thing in the visual field
would be overwhelming. However,
people on the autism spectrum have
trouble using the central and peripheral
visual systems simultaneously,
so subsequently they have trouble
filtering things. Having autism can be
compared to walking around with the
tubes from paper towels in front of
your face. You would move your head
around constantly, trying to check out
your environment and keep up with
what’s going on. People on the autism
spectrum tend to get hyperstimulated
when there is too much peripheral
movement happening all around them.
Their ambient visual system is not
telling them that people are, perhaps,
moving in many different directions,
both forward and backwards.
Confused, needing to feel where they
are in relationship to the things around
them, people on the autism spectrum
might start exhibiting stimming – selfstimulatory
behavior that incorporates
the repetition of physical movements,
including flapping the arms. When
the ambient visual system works as it
is supposed to, people on the autism
spectrum don’t experience overstimulation.
Vision therapy using yoked prisms
has been shown to help people on the
autism spectrum tremendously, sometimes
even removing autism tendencies.
This therapy has a major impact
on the ambient vision system. It is not
a cure for autism; it is a calming of the
sensory system. In one documented
case, a 14-year-old boy who had never
said more than one-word sentences
started speaking full sentences within
15 minutes of putting on a pair of
yoked prisms. The prism changes the
distribution of light on the retina; one
theory espouses the prism resets the
timing between the ambient and focal
vision systems. When they are out of
sync, a prism can help the two systems
blend better. Yoked prisms do what
any therapy – physical, occupational,
speech – is meant to do: create a new,
more meaningful and useful environment
for the patient. It changes input
and thus changes output.
Vision therapy is an attempt to
understand the world in which a person
on the autism spectrum lives and
moves, to understand what makes their
sensory input different and to take
steps to improve it. It is effective for
In one documented case, a 14-year-old
boy who had never said more than oneword
sentences started speaking full
sentences within 15 minutes of putting
on a pair of yoked prisms.
both children and adults. Once there is
a better understanding of what is affecting
the person with autism, vision therapy
can expand his or her peripheral
awareness and help him or her achieve
the ability to judge space and distance
so they don’t get as overwhelmed as
quickly. For more information about
yoked prisms and the autism spectrum,
a recommended book is Mel Kaplan’s
“Seeing Through New Eyes,” which
details his work with patients on the
autism spectrum.
About the Author
Dr. Graebe received both his B.S degree
in Visual Science and Doctorate of
Optometry from Indiana University. He
is a Behavioral Optometrist and learning
expert. He has been in private practice
here in the Bluegrass area for the past
32 years.