Autistic-Like Features in Visually Impaired Children: A Review of Literature and Directions for Future Research

Molinaro, Anna; Micheletti, Serena; Rossi, Andrea; Gitti, Filippo; Galli, Jessica; Merabet, Lotfi B.; Fazzi, Elisa Maria

doi:10.3390/brainsci10080507

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Autistic-Like Features in Visually Impaired Children: A Review of Literature and Directions for Future Research

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Unit of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, 25121 Brescia, Italy

Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, 25121 Brescia, Italy

Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Brain Sci. 2020, 10(8), 507; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10080507

Received: 9 July 2020 / Revised: 24 July 2020 / Accepted: 24 July 2020 / Published: 1 August 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Autism Research)

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Abstract

There remains great interest in understanding the relationship between visual impairment (VI) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to the extraordinarily high prevalence of ASD in blind and visually impaired children. The broad variability across individuals and assessment methodologies have made it difficult to understand whether autistic-like symptoms shown by some children with VI might reflect the influence of the visual deficit, or represent a primary neurodevelopmental condition that occurs independently of the VI itself. In the absence of a valid methodology adapted for the visually impaired population, diagnosis of ASD in children with VI is often based on non-objective clinical impression, with inconclusive prevalence data. In this review, we discuss the current state of knowledge and suggest directions for future research. View Full-Text

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; autistic-like features; social-cognitive development; stereotypical behaviors; visual impairment

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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MDPI and ACS Style

Molinaro, A.; Micheletti, S.; Rossi, A.; Gitti, F.; Galli, J.; Merabet, L.B.; Fazzi, E.M. Autistic-Like Features in Visually Impaired Children: A Review of Literature and Directions for Future Research. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 507. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10080507

AMA Style

Molinaro A, Micheletti S, Rossi A, Gitti F, Galli J, Merabet LB, Fazzi EM. Autistic-Like Features in Visually Impaired Children: A Review of Literature and Directions for Future Research. Brain Sciences. 2020; 10(8):507. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10080507

Chicago/Turabian Style

Molinaro, Anna, Serena Micheletti, Andrea Rossi, Filippo Gitti, Jessica Galli, Lotfi B. Merabet, and Elisa Maria Fazzi. 2020. "Autistic-Like Features in Visually Impaired Children: A Review of Literature and Directions for Future Research" Brain Sciences 10, no. 8: 507. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10080507

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