Maybe the Eyes Have It
July 31, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
New advances in studying the eye tracking patterns of infants may lead to a new way–yet another new way?—to diagnose autism and language delays in young children, according to the July 31st New York Times. The Times reports on research from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute: Researchers found that babies who look at their mothers’ mouths “have stronger language abilities” by the time they are three. Also noted is research by Professor Ami Klin director of the autism program of the Yale Child Study Center; he and Warren Jones have published an online paper in Developmental Science about a 15-month-old autistic girl whose “viewing patterns showed her to be driven by the physical attributes of what she was seeing rather than the social context.” Tiny video cameras that are embedded in display screens are used to track eye movements, even while a baby’s head bobbles and turns this way and that.
Charlie has long had difficulties with eye tracking. From the time he was two months old, if not before, he often looked out of the corners of both eyes, often with his head tilted. He wore prism lenses from the time he was 5-7 years old to help him focus both eyes on objects (especially moving ones, like balls when thrown and cars); these were gradually discontinued when Charlie kept on taking them off and bending them in half. He continues to look out of the corners of his eyes, to focus better on an object (we think). As for whether or not he looked at my mouth as an infant, I would have to check our few videos and many photos—-I suspect the answer is, he did not. It has only been in the last two years that I have noted Charlie really looking at my mouth and that of the speech therapist, and sometimes touching our mouths or tapping his own, and the results have helped his speech.
Perhaps it can be said that Charlie sees the world at a different angle, with a different focus, and it’s good to tilt my head and see things from his vide.
We had ‘vision’ therapy for quite a while, and prism lenses. I’d still like to do something to help him with the depth perception etc., but there are only so many hours in the average day.
best wishes
Did you have any trouble with the glasses becoming playthings, readily bent in half….
We have a paper (Mottron et al., 2007) about the atypical ways in which young autistic children orient to visual stimuli (including moving stimuli). The abstract is here.
I had a lot of vision problems when I was a child (no depth perception or peripheral vision, eyes not working together, to name a few) and did a lot of vision therapy. It’s better now, but I still have a lot of problems tracking moving things and judging distances. Currently (and in almost every picture I have with me in it from when I was little), my head cocks slightly to the side and tilts down a little bit and I look over the top rim of my glasses.
I don’t think I ever had much of a problem with my glasses breaking because I broke them. They have broken before (black electrical tape is amazing stuff) and I’ve lost them on several occasions (oftentimes, they would be on my nightstand).
Something that has helped me a little with depth perception is working on riding a bike. You have to be able to judge distance, balance and know what is going on around you all at the same time. The other thing that helped me was working with catching a ball. Oftentimes, my dad would throw a ball or another object (lately it’s been pieces of hard candy) for me to catch.
My mom said I had unusual eye-tracking as a baby (noted by doctors) but didn’t say exactly how it was unusual.
Hi Kristina –
Corner eye looking was one of Luke’s favorite activites; especially if he could run along side something like a fence of a set of bottles he’d lined up.
When we started giving him cod liver oil with plenty of Vitamin A in it, this behavior ceased within two weeks. I am willing to recommend you give it a try.
OK!
-pD
Hi passionlessDrone,
How did you find out about cod liver oil? Did a doctor recommend it to you? And how did the child respond to it? Was it easy to persuade him to drink it?
Hi Athina –
I’m not sure who recommended we try vitamin A in Cod Liver Oil. Either our DAN doctor, someone on a list serv, or another parent.
As far as convincing goes, they have flavored oil now, lemon and other varieties. We snuck it into Luke’s juice, so either he didn’t notice, or it didn’t bother him so much that he wouldn’t drink it.
OK!
-pD
It makes me wonder — my child with Aspergers is also blind. He never had enough vision to make eye contact or truly “watch” someone’s mouth while they talked. He’s a puzzle, allright.
I gave cod liver oil to Charlie for some years. No change in his eye gazing…….. Charlie used to take it straight. A very distinct smell no cherry flavor could mask, indeed!