Abstract In order to enhance the visual working memory abilities of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and to promote future exploration and practice in related fields, the study systematically sorts out and summarizes the relevant research at home and abroad, and points out that the performance of children with ASD in various visual working memory tasks is generally lower than that of normal children, especially in the function of refreshing, transforming and suppressing visual information, which reflect that children with ASD have difficulties in processing visual information. Neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies further reveal the abnormal activation of ASD children in related brain regions, especially the dysfunction in key areas such as prefrontal cortex and contralateral delayed activity. In addition, the abnormal oscillation of α, θ and β bands also shows that children with ASD are deficient in visual attention control and information processing, which affects the overall performance of their visual working memory.