Clinic Notes: Eye Contact and Autism

A recent study at the University of Wisconsin suggests that children with autism do not make eye contact because they see faces as threatening. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309151153.htm
Perhaps children with autism do see faces as threatening. I won't argue that. And I am familiar with the controversy about whether or not we should require that children with autism make eye contact. Many of the children with autism who come to my clinic, especially the young children, do not make eye contact on command or spontaneous eye contact. Of course, this results in social impairment, but it also results in impairment in observation learning or modeling and numerous developmental delays. The first ABA program in my eBook is on establishing eye contact. And the ABA program for eye contact is not first by accident. Thirty-five years of clinical experience has taught me that if eye contact is not established, the child with autism is not going to advance.