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Who cares about eye gaze?

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Early changes in eye gaze – or the time spent looking at another person’s face compared to the scene around them – is diminished in ASD. It starts to decline at about 12 months and is linked to later social communication behaviors. But many people wonder why this is an early developing behavior worth studying? Also, what happens in school age to kids that show poor eye gaze and infancy, and those who are on the “broader spectrum” but not a diagnosis in infancy – how do they fare at school age? Devon Gangi from UC Davis MIND Institute talks to us about both of these things and why baby siblings are so important

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33615438/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34008921/

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Why is it so hard to look them in the eye?

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There is an ongoing debate about why people with autism avoid eye contact.  There is data to support both, but as this behavior emerges very early, it’s important to look at data from preverbal children to understand the origins of changes in eye contact.  Many scientists also feel that avoiding eye contact snowballs over the lifespan and deprives people with autism from developing social skills.  Infants don’t even know why they avoid eye contact so at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, researchers are using eye tracking technology to answer this question.  The findings have clear implications for early intervention strategies.