Effect of Visual Information on Postural Control in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Lim et al. (2020) watched kids stand still. Half had autism, half did not. The lab used a force plate to track tiny body sway. Kids stood twice: once with eyes open, once with eyes closed.

The team wanted to know if children with autism use visual cues for balance the same way typical kids do.

Both groups stood steadier when they could see. When the room went dark, sway grew equally for all kids.

There was no autism-only wobble. Visual help for balance looked typical.

Lim et al. (2019) ran the same test on adults. In that study, adults with autism swayed more and had to work harder to stay upright. Same lab, same task, opposite result. The difference is age, not method.

Miltenberger et al. (2013) and Boxum et al. (2018) also found balance trouble in autism, but only when the task got hard: one leg, foam pad, or low IQ. The 2020 kids stood on two legs on a firm floor, the easiest version.

Fradet et al. (2025) dug deeper into the same child sample. They pulled 75 force-plate numbers and found a handful that quietly split autistic and typical kids. The null headline hides small micro-patterns you can measure if you want them.

Quiet standing on flat ground is not a red flag for balance issues in school-age clients with autism. Save your assessment time for harder tasks like one-leg stands, uneven surfaces, or eyes-closed tandem walk. If you need a number, grab force-plate metrics flagged by Fradet et al. (2025), not just overall sway.