Autism? Anyone with an autistic child?

Question

My son was diagnosed with mild to moderate autism. I saw a program w/ a father of a child, who said he noticed his son would turn his head to the side when looking at anything that projected light; like t.v., moving cars,etc. A few days ago, I noticed while my son was watching t.v. that he would turn his head to the side; as if he were only trying to use one eye to view the screen. Can anyone shed any light on this/

Answer 1

I'm autistic. As usual, I'm typing this with my chair tilted to the side, so I can look at the monitor out of the corner of my eyes. I prefer to use my peripheral vision rather than my central vision, and my peripheral vision is stronger than most people's.

Your son may be hypersensitive to light, and looking at the TV directly might hurt his eyes. Or he could be like me, and in general, using his direct vision may result in sensory overload and fragmentation, while his peripheral vision allows him to process visual information without losing context.

I recommend reading the article at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/autism_world/97315 for more information.