Autism and blindness: research and reflections

Abstract

Reviews the book, Autism and blindness: Tesearch and reflections by Linda Pring (2005). This is an intriguing title for a book given that few people interested in autism would include blindness in their mental picture of this disorder. In fact, the contributors to this book, who are eminent researchers in each and sometimes both fields, provide an illuminating summary of research in which the characteristic behaviours and impairments of autism and blindness can be seen to link in many ways. There is a strong focus on the social cognitive domain in this collection, although other areas such as the sensory difficulties which characterize both blindness and autism are not neglected. In a final overview, Tager-Flusberg poses questions for future investigation which arise from the challenging ideas, and along the way suggests that autistic features are only found in those who are totally blind from birth. If this is true, one wonders how much vision is necessary to escape the risk of autism developing in association with blindness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).