Brief Report: Intersection of Sets of Symptoms Between Congenital Blindness and ASD: Proposing of Differential Criteria.

Jarjoura (2024) wrote a think-piece. He asked: how do we know a blind child truly has autism?

The author looked at symptom lists for both congenital blindness and ASD. He spotted big overlap.

He then built five check-box rules to separate real autism from autism-like behaviors caused only by blindness.

The paper gives a five-point test. If the child quickly learns with help, adapts to new places, talks better over time, shows warm social growth, and has a bright long-term outlook, the ASD label may be wrong.

Blind kids who pass these five gates probably do not have primary autism.

Gaylord-Ross et al. (1995) tried a teacher checklist to screen PDD in blind kids. Their tool flagged many; Waleed now says we must dig deeper before we stamp "ASD."

Gillberg et al. (2014) warned that we over-count ASD when other conditions ride along. Waleed agrees and adds blindness to the list of mimics.

Gepner et al. (2002) used visual motion tests to split autism from Asperger. Waleed flips the idea: when vision is gone from birth, some ASD signs may be blindness effects, not autism.

Mislabeling blind children with ASD can waste years of wrong therapy and worry. Use the five criteria during eval. Watch response to teaching, language gains, and real social warmth. If the child is blooming, pause before locking in the autism code and write goals that build on the strengths you see.