• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

vision and autism

shaunaq68

shaunaq68

Active Member
Hi, my son was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 and is now 12 years old. He is considered level 2 in the DSMV 5 and is absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love him dearly and he is limited verbally but has made huge progress through the years. I began homeschooling him this year and decided to give him a visual test for color blindness and he failed all but one of the questions. The questions involved colored pictures of dots with numbers inside that needed to be identified by seeing the different shades of colors. My question is how do i know if it is the shades of colors he can't see or if he can't see them due to the nature of the test and if it's actually patterns he is struggling with identifying? Has anyone else experienced this? There is such minimal information on any visual impairment and autism... so I don't know where else to go. Any input would b greatly appreciated thank you, shauna
 
Color blindness is very common in males, in general. I don't have it but know others who do.
I am not aware of it being specific in Autism, but it may be. Try showing him things of similar color (wires work good or take him to the hardware store in the electrical isle) and see if he can identify them. Blue, black and brown look alike. Sometimes blue and green. Red and orange.
Good Luck
 
Peace said:
Color blindness is very common in males, in general. I don't have it but know others who do.
I am not aware of it being specific in Autism, but it may be. Try showing him things of similar color (wires work good or take him to the hardware store in the electrical isle) and see if he can identify them. Blue, black and brown look alike. Sometimes blue and green. Red and orange.
Good Luck
Click to expand...
Thank you..i will try that...Do u know if it is possible to see some shades of certain colors but not all? Like a dark green but not a light green or something like that? I reviewed the pics that he struggled with and it seems like there are some similarities in the pictures he failed...? Thank you for your input :)
 
My brother is not autistic at all but he is color blind. Its a mostly male thing, colorblindness. From what i understand, he sees colors like red and green as different shades of another color. My brother always comes downstairs in the most oddly matched outfits simply because he can't discern color right. Maybe it could be as simple as that? Ask your son what color he thinks his clothes are? The official test that you described is the standard, but i think simply identifying plain colors works too. That's how the school found out my brother was colorblind back when he first started kindergarten - he couldn't get his colors right. When he did, it was by fluke or cause he'd memorized that, say, the grass is supposed to be green.
 
shaunaq68 said:
Thank you..i will try that...Do u know if it is possible to see some shades of certain colors but not all? Like a dark green but not a light green or something like that? I reviewed the pics that he struggled with and it seems like there are some similarities in the pictures he failed...? Thank you for your input :)
Click to expand...
can you post the examples of the failures?
 
shaunaq68 said:
Do u know if it is possible to see some shades of certain colors but not all? Like a dark green but not a light green or something like that?
Click to expand...

In the eye there are two types of cell (rods and cones). One detects tone/brightness, the other detects colour.
[edited. Implication added as it seems I was too concise :) ...]
Therefore, from a colour theory perspective (not as as a medical person), if he doesn't see a colour, he shouldn't see that colour in any shade/tone/intensity of it. He will still see the tone, but in the colour that he sees all the rest of that colour in. However, colours are seldom pure shades of each other. If there are any other colours mixed in, he might be able to distinguish between them (eg, a pure green and a blue-green) depending on the colours he has difficulty with.
 
Last edited:
zurb said:
In the eye there are two types of cell (rods and cones). One detects tone/brightness, the other detects colour.
Click to expand...

What he says is true. The cones detect color and the rods are used for peripheral vision as well as seeing in the dark. The cones are situated in the center of the eye while the rods are on the outer parts of it. I dont know if the rods affect shades of colors, but i suppose they could. I don't know that this would have anything to big do with colorblindness other than explaining it scientifically, though. Unless your son as had surgery on his eyes at some point, its really just interesting information.
 
shaunaq68 said:
I began homeschooling him this year and decided to give him a visual test for color blindness and he failed all but one of the questions. The questions involved colored pictures of dots with numbers inside that needed to be identified by seeing the different shades of colors.
Click to expand...
I am wondering where you got the test from, and how you showed them to him.
There is a huge difference between printed colours and on a screen, and even more so if the screen is not calibrated. This might change the results. I would consider anything online or as an app to be useful as an initial screening tool but not for diagnosis. If you haven't done so, it may be worthwhile to ask your family doctor to redo the tests. The doctor should be able to tell you the exact colours your son struggles with.
 
shaunaq68 said:
Thank you..i will try that...Do u know if it is possible to see some shades of certain colors but not all? Like a dark green but not a light green or something like that? I reviewed the pics that he struggled with and it seems like there are some similarities in the pictures he failed...? Thank you for your input :)
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, I do not know. I do know however, that your son is a very lucky boy to have you for a mom.
 
Some visual problems are common with ASD, but insofar as I am aware colour blindness is not one of them. Convergence insufficiency, visual processing disorders, etc. sure, but as others have said some males just get colour blindness whether they are on the spectrum or not.
 
I see color alright, but I needed glasses at 6 years old, and my eyes have only gotten worse with age, I went from being able to read and focus up close with my glasses on at 39yrs old to having to remove my glasses to focus on anything up close, almost cant read with my glasses on. So bifocals are in my near future (YUCK!) Mike
 
That's a pretty good question. Try tests like this: Color Arrangement Test For Color Blindness | Color Blindness
I wish I still had the link to a really extensive one. Of course, much of the really sensitive tests are very easily a problem with your monitor and not your eyes, but it makes for a more neutral starting point than picking out a spotted snake in a gumball machine. What's a snake doing in a gumball machine anyway?

I'm terribly nearsighted. I'm curious now if that's an Aspie thing or just a "half the population was a mole or bat in their past life" kind of thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom