Scientists Learn Why Children With Autism Avoid Eye Contact; It's Not About Disinterest Nor Anxiety

Some children with autism or those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may characteristically avoid eye contact. Such a behavior has elicited a long-standing debate that the kids do this deliberately due to disinterest or anxiety.

But experts have learned that children with autism do not avoid eye contact on purpose nor is it indicative of negative feelings. It's actually the result of missing the social signals from the other person who is looking at them. The experts published their findings in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The researchers looked into two hypotheses to determine why children with autism supposedly avoid eye contact. Using eye-tracking methods, the experts studied gaze aversion, or when the child deliberately looks away, and gaze indifference among toddlers. They compared the response with kids who are developing regularly.

Researchers saw there is no significant difference in the gaze and eye activity between children with autism and typically developing toddlers. The experts learned, however, that children with autism could have better eye contact depending on the degree of the cues and the level at which the gaze is held.

Typically developing toddlers can easily make eye contact at a fraction of a second or about 500 ms. Children with autism, on the other hand, take 1233 ms to find the cues. In other words, they avoid eye contact because they miss the signal.

According to the Scientific American, eye contact is one of the early signs of autism. As a non-verbal form of communication, eye contact is vital to social interaction and it can be frustrating for someone dealing with children with autism to be unable to communicate this way.

The findings, however, bring insights to better address therapies or medications that could help children with autism and their families. "You might have different approaches to treatment and different ideas about the brain basis of autism," lead study author Jennifer Moriuchi said, via the press release.