WE present the first assessment of motion vision in childhood autism.
Postural reactivity to visually perceived motion was measured in five
autistic children and 12 normal controls of the same chronological age
. Anteroposterior as well as total body sway occurring on a force plat
form in response to movements in the visual environment were compared.
Autistic children were posturally more unstable than normal children
and quite insensitive to visually perceived environmental motion. Some
implications of this impairment for sensorimotor and social communica
tion development in infantile autism are discussed.