Assessment of Autism in Children with Vision Impairments

2011

The Syndrome of optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) is a congenital condition with abnormal wiring of the optic nerves and brain. More than 200 subjects with ONH age two or younger have been enrolled in a prospective study at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and are followed until age five. Preliminary data from these children, based on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), suggest that approximately half of them will develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by age 5. No appropriate diagnostic tools have been developed to assess ASD in children with vision impairments and it is therefore left up to the discretion of the individual diagnostician how to modify the tool. This prevents many children with vision impairment from receiving an appropriate ASD diagnosis. We propose to enroll ten subjects and their parents with ONH, approximately half of whom we suspect have ASD and the other half who exhibit no signs of ASD. An expert psychologist masked to the subjects? clinical data will perform a clinical diagnostic evaluation with modifications designed to accommodate the level of vision impairment and cognitive development. These assessments will be videotaped and then expert diagnosticians will systematically modify the scoring of the diagnostic tools for assessment of ASD in a population of children with vision impairments. This pilot data will be used in a grant proposal for a larger study on identifying and diagnosing autism in children with vision impairment.

autism, vision impairment, assessment

Training Trainees, Performing Research or Evaluation

Health-Related Activities, Other - Cultural Diversity

Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN

Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Limited English, Specific Groups

Single-County

N/A