GAZE AVERSION IN AUTISTIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN

Abstract

Autistic children rarely engage in eye contact, and while observation suggests this is due to a specific avoidance of eye contact, some experimental studies have challenged this. The effects on autistic and normal children of an adult looking at them with both eyes, with 1 eye covered or apparently not looking at them (both eyes covered) were investigated. As expected, autistic children looked more at the adult with his eyes covered, and also engaged in less flight behavior. They looked less when 2 eyes were exposed than 1, confirming the potency of the 2-eye pattern in provoking gaze aversion. Normal children engaged in much more eye contact than the autistic children, with fewer flight behaviors and stereotypies, supporting the hypothesis that autistic children are predominantly flight motivated. Other, sometimes conflicting, results of previous studies were discussed. Teachers and nurses were recommended not to make efforts to engage autistic children even in friendly eye contact as this provoked more flight behavior.