1. Increased Eye Contact During Conversation Compared to Play in Children With Autism.
- Author
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Jones RM, Southerland A, Hamo A, Carberry C, Bridges C, Nay S, Stubbs E, Komarow E, Washington C, Rehg JM, Lord C, and Rozga A
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Case-Control Studies, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Male, Autistic Disorder physiopathology, Communication, Fixation, Ocular physiology, Play and Playthings, Social Skills
- Abstract
Children with autism have atypical gaze behavior but it is unknown whether gaze differs during distinct types of reciprocal interactions. Typically developing children (N = 20) and children with autism (N = 20) (4-13 years) made similar amounts of eye contact with an examiner during a conversation. Surprisingly, there was minimal eye contact during interactive play in both groups. Gaze behavior was stable across 8 weeks in children with autism (N = 15). Lastly, gaze behavior during conversation but not play was associated with autism social affect severity scores (ADOS CSS SA) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). Together findings suggests that eye contact in typical and atypical development is influenced by subtle changes in context, which has implications for optimizing assessments of social communication skills.
- Published
- 2017
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