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This study examined the utility of standard autism diagnostic measures in nine children (aged 5–9y) with severe vision impairment and a range of social and language functioning.

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised (ADI‐R) were systematically modified and used to assess symptoms of autism in children with vision less than or equal to 20/800, the majority of whom had optic nerve hypoplasia. The results of the assessments, including analysis of symptom patterns, were compared with expert autism diagnoses.

Modified autism measures demonstrated good agreement with clinical diagnoses. Symptoms found to be most and least reliable in discriminating autism from behaviors common to most children with congenital vision impairment are described. Comparisons of current behavior with parent‐reported behaviors from a …