Asd and vision problems?

[dontknowwhat2callmyself]

DD 7.8 yrs is still not really able to draw anything recognisable - arts and crafts are probably one of her least favourite activities and she struggles with catching a ball. She doesn't seem to attempt to catch a ball just stands randomly with her arms out whilst looking anywhere but at the ball! She is in middle sets for Literacy and Maths although I have noticed with her reading that she can mistake similar words and leave out words within a text.

Has anyone any similar experiences and is there anything I can do to help her or are they part of difficulties resulting from being on the spectrum?

In my experience there can be links, Dd3 has visual perception issues which I think are common with Asd.

This makes catching and throwing difficult because of trying to judge speed and distance.

Hypermobile fingers combine to make drawing difficult and yes to the making lots of mistakes when reading.

Has your Dd had her vision tested? My Dd3 had yellow tints in her lenses to help her with her visual perception, she made progress so the optician said she didnt need them anymore but she has anti glare and transition lenses. She has just been diagnosed as dyslexic so I guess its back to the opticians to see if a different colour would help her.

Yes, DD did have her vision tested a couple of years back. The optician did mention eye tracking problems but as she was only 5/6 at the time he said it was common as eyes were still developing at her age. He mentioned something about prism glasses but didn't push the issue although I did end up getting them for her - she does still wear them when she's reading but she still makes reading mistakes. Although when she first wore the glasses she didn't seem to get so tired easily.

I have never heard of transition lenses does your DD have short/long sight?

Transitions are like reactolite lenses they go dark when she goes outside. She has them because she struggles with bright lights. She has sensory procsessing issues alongside her Asd.

She isnt long or short sighted but has other issues such as tracking and bpthe visual perception stuff.

Those things do sound like they could be sensory processing related. My 7yo DS has SPD (and ASD) and, amongst other things, is very clumsy and unco-ordinated, cannot catch a ball, has very messy writing, and reverses left and right when reading and writing.

In his case I think the sensory issue causing these things is not visual per se but primarily vestibular.

He has a sensory diet which an OT drew up for him for home snd school. At school he does a lot of 1-1 work with the PE teacher who has been given exercises to do with him by the OT to start adrressing some of these problems - early days still so hard to tell yet how effective it is!