Importance of eye contact and autism: What you need to know

Lack of eye contact is a well-known and hotly debated symptom of autism. We know that people with ASD have reduced eye contact with others, but why?

There are two theories about eye contact and autism. One is that people with autism avoid eye contact because it’s uncomfortable for them. The other is that because people with autism don’t understand or don’t care for the importance of the social cues that are gained from eye contact. 

Some adults with autism have confirmed that eye contact does make them uncomfortable or that it feels unnatural. Without minimizing the experience that adults with autism have with eye contact, there is research that indicates that people with autism aren’t likely to avoid eye contact any more than any other person, but they are likely to be confused about the cues they receive from eye contact.

Over time, being confused when making eye contact can create negative feelings. So, eye contact itself is not automatically unpleasant, but experience with not understanding what to do with eye contact creates an unpleasant feeling as it happens more and more.  

Eye contact and autism: why eye contact is very important

Eye contact is not just about two people, like a parent and child locking eyes. It is about learning to direct the gaze towards the area where learning can occur.

Think about all the places that you have to look in order to learn. You look at a chalkboard to see the formula written to learn math. When you hear the word ‘apple’, you look at a picture of an apple to understand how those two things are related. You look at a teacher modeling a movement to learn how to salsa dance. All learning is socially mediated, at least early in life. That means that you have to pay attention to someone else to learn new information.

In terms of child development, for an infant, the most powerful learning occurs by looking at their caregivers. This happens by biological design, and in this case, it is biology that shows us the importance of eye contact and socially mediated learning. Infants can see best at a distance of 12 to 14 inches, which just happens to be the distance between a caregiver’s arms and their eyes and faces. Humans are biologically designed to get their first learning from another person—and to learn the value of that interaction. This is a big clue as to how important eye contact and social interaction is for human learning.

Learning proceeds by shifting the gaze to other elements in the environment and back to their caregiver to gather information. Eye contact is a learning tool.

You keep using that word:

Socially mediated is reinforcement gained through the efforts of someone else. This is especially true of infants, who have no biological ability to access reinforcement without the help of someone else. Not all reinforcement is socially mediated; for example, as early as age 4-5 years, you can get up and get your own drink from the refrigerator, which is a direct reinforcement.

Another valuable learning tool occurs when infants learn to look at their caregivers and find meaning in their faces. This is known as social referencing. Social referencing occurs when infants study the facial expressions of those around them to determine how they should respond to situations around them. In normal development, babies between 8-10 months will use the faces and tones of voice of people around them to decide how they should respond. As infants mature, they continue to refer back to a trusted adult to make sure they are understanding the world around them and responding correctly. Solid skills in social referencing are another vital building block to future learning. 

It is not just a cultural choice or a program to force on children to make them do something unnatural. You can’t run before you walk and you can’t learn easily and readily unless you can shift your gaze and use the information presented to you.

As children with autism age, they can choose when it is comfortable and appropriate to engage in eye contact and when it is not, but in early learning, eye contact is vital to help build later learning.

How to make eye contact meaningful

As we’ve said, eye contact is not easy or even fun for children with autism, but using behavioral science, we can make it as play-based and fun as possible so that it is a skill that becomes more natural over time. 

Start by holding an item such as a super fun toy or a favorite food about two inches from your face, right in front of your nose. When your child shifts their gaze towards the desired item, make eye contact with them and offer enthusiastic praise along with access to the toy or food.

This is a great way to capture their motivation for the favorite toy and use that to teach eye contact while linking both of those things with social praise. 

The goal is to make it fun. Have your child wear sunglasses to start out or cup your hands around your eyes to draw the focus to your eyes. Try looking in a mirror to make eye contact if looking face to face gets tiresome. It is always a good idea to get down to eye level with your child as much as possible. Looking up at you can be exhausting for a child, especially if they aren’t super motivated to look at you in the first place. 

Anything that you can do to bring attention to your face and encourage eye contact will be helping to establish an essential early learning skill. 

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