Statement of The Problem: Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the development of certain parts of the brain, affecting the perception and communication skills of a developing child. The symptoms of Autism appear before the age of three, its main cause is still unknown and it’s not curable; but education plays an effective and significant role in improving the living conditions of children with Autism.
Today, one of the effective ways to communicate with children is by using the visual method. Considering that some of the autistic children do not have the ability to speak, images can be a substitute for words for them. In addition, some of these children who have good visual memory and visual understanding pay more attention to images as a means of communication. Therefore, illustrations are used efficiently in the compilation of the content of books and other educational tools.
Due to the prevalence of Autism, taking effective measures is necessary to educate and help the mental and social development of these children according to their characteristics. Since these children encounter images with their unique visual perception and neurological characteristics, they do not perceive them the same way as non-autistic children do. Knowing about the characteristics of their perception and also the type of illustrations that are compatible with their perception should be helpful and effective in improving the production of visual content for this group of children.
The main question: The main question is what features should be included in visual content for children with Autism according to their visual perception. The main goal of this research is to introduce the visual characteristics that are suitable for the unique visual perception of autistic children; which is useful in the production of visual content for this group of children. Also, getting to know the way of visual perception in these children is also important as a secondary goal.
Research Method: The research is applied and the type of data is qualitative. Regarding physical and mental characteristics, visual perception and identification of visual characteristics suitable for autistic children, due to the lack of Persian sources in this field, the focus was on non-Persian sources, and the research was done based on online searches in reliable scientific databases.  Interdisciplinary studies have been done focusing on the visual perception of autistic children of the visual elements and qualities such as: line, shape, volume, texture, color, writing, type of composition, form and color contrasts, symmetry and balance. It should be mentioned that in the image analysis section, the perception of autistic children from all the mentioned cases is based on the visual analysis of the samples. In the analysis section, in order to match the scientific findings with the real examples available in the educational system, these examples are targeted and based on criteria such as the amount of use, the age of the audience, the quality of the images and the ability to access them for free. Platforms and specialized websites in this field were collected and sampled. Due to the lack of native and Iranian educational resources in this field, non-Iranian sources have inevitably been referred to.
The number of samples is 40 illustrated educational cards (printed and digital) suitable for the first and second grades of elementary school age group, with the topic of daily activities, which are precisely examined and analyzed based on the quality of the presence of visual indicators in the images such as: line, shape, volume, texture, color, writing, The type of composition, form and color contrasts, symmetry and balance. At the end, the results of theoretical studies and visual analyzes are suggested and introduced as visual indicators corresponding to the visual perception of autistic children. It is obvious that in image analysis, the main reference of the authors is on theoretical studies and the examples are not the basis of the final conclusion (it should be noted that due to the lack of space in the article, the analysis of 10 images is presented in the text).
Results:
Point: It is used both geometrically and non-geometrically, this element is also used for the purpose of creating texture.
Line: The provided images do not have any contour lines. A variety of straight and curved lines have been used, but curved lines are used more than lines with sharp angles. The use of curved lines in the images is consistent with the data obtained about the principles of graphic design for Autism.
Shape: Geometric shapes such as circles, rectangles, squares, triangles, ovals and combined shapes, as well as repeating shapes that form a kind of texture in parts of the image can be seen. Shapes with many rounded corners were used in the images, which is consistent with findings of a preference for rounded, curved edges over sharp edges in graphic design for Autism (Satpathy, 2020).
Volume: The images are mainly two-dimensional and flat, however, in a small number of images, the shadows, and the darkness and brightness in the colors have added a kind of bulge and volume to parts of the image.
Texture: Texture was used less than the rest of the elements and is mostly created from the repetition of elements such as points, lines and forms such as spots. In the discussions related to the visual perception of autistic children, it was pointed out that they show a lower understanding of texture than other children, because the understanding of texture requires more complex neural networks in the visual pathway in the brain. Considering this issue, it can be said that the brief use of texture in the presented images can be consistent with this research finding.
Color: In most of the images, the main and secondary colors are used with low saturation and purity, and are combined with neutral colors such as white, black, and gray. Warm colors like orange, cool colors like blue, and colors like green, brown, and pink are seen in a large number of images. Colors with low saturation can be more suitable for autistic children due to their high sensitivity to sensory stimuli. Children with Autism are more sensitive to changes in color saturation compared to other children (Holtzclaw, 2011, 12).
According to the findings, some of these children show different and unusual visual processing ability due to their high sensitivity to sensory stimuli; in such a way that they perceive bright visual stimuli with a very high sensory load and as a result avoid it. (Simmons et al., 2009, 2707) For this reason, autistic children show less interest in the color yellow than other children, and prefer green, brown, and earth tones more than other children (Grandgeorge and Masataka, 2016, 1-4).
According to the studies, cool colors like blue can have a calming effect on these children. (Bahamin et al., 2015, 5) Dull, whitish and gray colors such as pink are often liked by these children and have relaxing effects. (Effect of colors, undated) In addition, the color pink is the most effective color in calming aggressive behavior in these children (Bahamin et al., 2015, 5).
Warm colors cause negative psychological effects such as causing anger, or even negative physical effects such as causing pain in parts of the body. (The effect of colors, undated) Therefore, the use of colors such as orange in the presented images is contrary to the needs of these children.
Rhythm: The rhythm in the images is often monotonous and consists of repeating lines, dots, and shapes. Also, the progressive rhythm can be seen in one of the images, which consists of repeated and nested oval forms.
Movement and direction: The composition of the elements in the images is such that the movement of the eye and the audience’s gaze is focused towards the center and top of the frame, on the main subject. The content of the images are designed in a concise and simple way, and the background elements are not seen in large numbers. Studies have shown that people with Autism are easily distracted by information they don’t like; Therefore, it is better to use simple graphics and avoid using images in the background. It is also important to avoid using abstract images and remove elements that are too prominent. (Satpathy, 2020) Autistic children’s understanding of visual stimuli is more focused on the local details, and global understanding of visual stimuli is less seen in these children. (Kurtz, 2006, 12).
Text: The typeface used is sans serif, geometric and monoline. Which is consistent with the principles proposed for graphic design for autistic children.
Symmetry: In most of the images, the presence of complete symmetry or asymmetrical symmetry is visible.
Balance and equilibrium: Images have balance due to their symmetry. The overall images have balance and equilibrium, sometimes with a bit of weight in the right or left part of the image.
Proportion: In most of the images, the proportion and size of the image components are close to reality.
In general, it can be said that almost all visual elements and qualities can be used in creating visual content for autistic children with some restrictions. Autistic children’s visual perception of simpler elements with less details, less bright colors and lights, shapes with less sharpness, softer and simpler textures, composition with less elements is better, which we explained in detail for each element in the section “the results of the analysis”. Paying attention to these factors is effective in creating peace in daily teaching and communication with these children and even in improving their physical health.
The results of the analysis show that the visual perception of autistic children has not been paid much attention to by the designers in the design of illustrated educational cards for them, so it is hoped that with the expansion of interdisciplinary research, we will see the improvement of appropriate designs for this audience community.