A study of children in the Metro Atlanta area found that children with vision impairment and children with hearing loss both had significantly higher rates of autism than the general population.   One in 830 children had vision impairment, and roughly 7% had autism spectrum disorder, versus about 1% of the general  Atlanta population of children.  The figures were similar with children with hearing loss: one in 770 children had hearing loss, and about 6% of these children had ASD.

Additionally, it was found that both groups (autism and vision impairment, and autism and hearing loss), showed a higher rate of co-morbid intellectual disability than the visually impaired and hearing loss children without autism.  

Digging further into the statistics, the study found that compared to children with visual impairment without autism, the children with visual impairment and ASD were more likely to be premature and have a lower birth weight.   Among the children with hearing loss and ASD, this group was found to be more likely to be male, and more likely to have cerebal palsy than their counterparts with hearing loss but no ASD.

Finally, children who had vision impairment and ASD were diagnosed later than  the children with no autism (6 years 7 months, versus 4 years 8 months), but there was no difference in age at diagnosis between the hearing impaired children with and without autism. 

Kyree Smith is an inspiration not only to others on the autism spectrum, but to his classmates as well.   In addition to his autism diagnosis, Kyree is also hearing-impaired.  His mother was told by doctors early on that he'd never speak, and would not be able to keep up in mainstream classes.

Kyree has proved the doctors' prognosis wrong:  he graduated from high school as an honors student, and will be attending Gallaudet University in the fall, where he'll study American Sign Language.    Kyree's plan after college is to have a successful career as a certified interpreter.

After a great deal of social difficulty in middle school, Kyree was able to turn it around in high school, where he joined various groups and developed friendships with his classmates.  His parents credit his success to a number of interventions including speech therapy, occupational therapy -- where they worked on improving his cognitive and motor skills -- and social skills classes, where he learned how to become more aware of personal space, how to try to be more aware of social cues, and how not to perseverate on 'Dr. Who' or World War II planes - two of his favorite topics.  

Kyree, who was born with no hearing in his left ear, had a bone-anchored hearing aid surgically implanted during high school.  The procedure was successful, and for the first time, Kyree had hearing from both ears.

The optimistic young man has advice for parents of children with various impairments: "If your child has a disability or autism, you just can't give up on them".