ICNC2018 Abstracts & Symposia Proposals, ICNC 2014

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Blindness and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs)
Rubin Eduardo Jure

Last modified: 2014-04-03

Abstract


Methods: The prevalence of ASDs was assessed in a school for the blind: 38 children were examined in two stages: (1) formally, using 3di (*) Interview (validated for research) (2) informally through clinical evaluation in the classroom.

Results: Twenty six children (group I) had congenital blindness (CB), and 12 (group II) had either low vision or acquired blindness.A significant difference on the prevalence of TEAs was found between both groups: 15 children (57%) of the group I met the criteria for Autism on both evaluations, and only one of group II met the diagnosis of Asperger Disorder (p value: 0.0233). Four of the 15 children (26%) with Autism had a history of regression before age three.Four of the remaining 11 children with CB (without autism at the moment of the evaluation) have had a complete clinical picture of the disorder before age five and improved dramatically after that age.

Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the relation between Autism and Blindness is not straightforward, different scenarios can be observed:

  1. Independent of its etiology, CB is an important predisposing factor for ASDs
  2. CB is not by itself a sufficient condition to produce ASDs because some of the children with congenital blindness had a normal social, language and communication development.
  3. CB is a predisposing condition for Autistic Regression
  4. Although some children with CB show the full clinical picture of autism in the first years of life, some of them will improve significantly, following a course usually not seen in “classic autism”.

References


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Supplementary information
(*) The Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview (3di) is a parent interview validated for research, similar to the ADIR, with an almost perfect discrimination between autistic spectrum versus non-autistic subjects (sensitivity 1.0; specificity > 0.97)

See: Skuse, David; Warrington, Richard; Bishop, Dorothy; Chowdhury, Uttom; Lau, Jennifer; Mandy, William; Place, Maurice. (The developmental, dimensional and diagnostic interview (3di): A novel computerized assessment for autism spectrum disorders.) J.Am.acad.Child Adolesc.Psychiatry. 2004 May;43 (5):548-558


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