Vision problems are very common in people with autism, and autistic people often use visual information inefficiently. Many autistic people have hyper-sensitive vision. They are unable to visually "hold still", and rely on a constant scanning of visual information in order to ascertain meaning. They have problems integrating their central and peripheral vision, and often seem to be looking off to the side of an object. Many autistic children are not able to use their central vision system for any length of time, and are constantly distracted by what is going on around them. They are not able to get detailed information about their environment, because they cannot use their central system properly. Seeing that the visual system relates to motor, thinking, speech and perceptual abilities, it follows that these areas will also be influenced by poor visual skills. Because they do not integrate the two visual systems well, autistic children may sometimes shut down their peripheral system altogether, and become fixated on an activity for excessive periods of time.

Some of the behaviour that indicates that a child may have visual problems include:

• poor eye contact
• difficulty paying attention visually
• unusual reaction to light
• excessive visual searching
• clumsiness - poor judgements of the space around him
• difficulty going up and down stairs
• easily distracted by things going on around him
• poor eye hand coordination
• unusual colour sensitivities
• fixation on a task for excessive lengths of time