Open Discussion about Autism and Eye Contact
The Autism News | Special Guest
From Susan F.
Why doesn’t my son make eye contact when i talk to him?
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Comments
Liz says: My son Matt (25) makes eye contact – if people are smiling. Any other emotion and he has to turn away. The amount of emotion displayed in someone’s eye is very intense. They pick up on the emotion of that particular person and have to decide whether to engage or not. Anything but a smile is very uncomfortable and results in a “fear” reaction. Want your child to look at you? Smile, smile, smile. Let him know he is welcome to engage in a non-verbal cue – and don’t force it.
Help says: its not that they necessarily just have eye contact problems. One major sign of ASD at the youngest arund 1 or 2 is a lack of joint control. Joint control is being able to use eye contact with another person to identify what they may be talking about, or being able to predict what they are looking at or about to do next. This als leads to ASD children not being able to communicate properly. You may notice your child has a hard time reading body language. This is because he has not mastered joint control, and is something that could be worked on with applied behavioral analysis. I would work on finding a behavior analyst to create an IEP for your son to help him learn joint control.
KS says: My son was not making very good eye contact after he “changed” around 9m…he’s almost 3 and I made it a point to always try and look him in the eyes, or engage him with my behavior where he DID look me in the eyes…no force, no “look me in the eyes!” – just a point. As I said, he’s almost 3 now and his eye contact has improved GREATLY. Blessings and good luck.
monica tanase says: Ros Blackburn, a child with severe autism that became a high-functional grown-up, explained that the world appeared for her very disturbing ,with no meaning , it was like we whach a movie without sound or we see loud drunk people going out from a restaurant .We don’t know what to expect ,the actions and movements of these people could be frightening because we can imagine a violent potential. A person with autism see our world like this and feels threatened ,that’s why she develops some strategies like avoiding the straight look , or the shake of the fingers in front of the eyes in order to draw a line between her and what was outside ,focusing on the fingers and not what it is outside. Maybe here is an explanation. Another one would be that an autistic person avoids anything that asks for a personal involvement and also the outside sensorial stimulus.
AspieKid says: Autistic people have a really hard time with eye contact. It is really intense to look someone directly in the eye for most of them, so they only do it occasionally. Some of them also say that trying to be in a conversation and also concentrate on eye contact makes it more difficult to concentrate on their thoughts and what they are saying. I have always had a problem with it. I’m 46 now and never really perfected eye contact, but I got good enough at it that if anyone does notice, it won’t make them uncomfortable.
Annette says: My daughter is severely autistic. She doesn’t make eye contact with me when I speak to her either. But if I sing to her and make body gestures I have her eyes on me for as long as my song keeps going. I think part of their autism is their brain not picking up voices when people talk. It’s like she tunes me out. But if I make the word I’m saying longer like “caaaaaar” then she will look at me.
