With autism still being such a big and poorly understood issue, and with April being the International Autism Awareness Month, we’re going to dedicate at least a few articles to the topic. So let’s start with one of the most recent developments on the condition, one that could hopefully lead to better, more efficient ways of dealing with it.
According to a new study to be published in June in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders from the University of Vermont, conversational eye contact could be an autism telltale sign. Of course, with the condition being a disorder, there’s a lot more to it than that, so let’s dive into the topic.
Conversational eye contact
For the study, the Canadian team looked at 18 children suffering from autism spectrum disorder aged six to twelve, as well as at a control group made up of 19 children without the disorder. A special monitor was used to register the eye movements of the 37 children and to establish behaviors.
As it turns out, children suffering from the condition are far more likely to focus on person’s mouth than on their eyes during conversation, particularly when the conversation turned to somewhat emotional topics. These topics included how they felt, what makes them scared, when they are scared, etc.
Additionally, the more intense the form of autism and the poorer the verbal and intellectual skills of the children, the more likely they were to avoid the eyes and to look at the mouth. The same was available for those with a limited executive function (the mental skills that allow you to pay attention and to manage your time).
Being an observational study, the researchers couldn’t determine the precise reason behind the strange behavior, but they did manage to come up with a few very plausible solutions. Still, seeing as autism is a spectrum disorder, it’s very difficult to come up with a theory to fit in all the cases, since they are so different from one another.
One idea would be that emotional conversations strain their executive function, thus causing a need for distraction. This would be what causes them to look away from the eyes, as they are overwhelmed with the information they are receiving and sharing, feeling the need to get smaller doses of information from other sources.
While the theory is still that – a theory, the fact that the team managed to pick up on the habit is very important. Knowing this, experts can now try to come up with different, more adequate therapies that would allow these children to attempt healing in a more comfortable situation.
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