Eye contact and ASD

[chopstheduck]

I'm absolutely certain I have read on here that good eye contact doesn't rule out autism. I could really do with something concrete that I can show to paed along that line.

Ds1 is close to being formally diagnosed with autism. The paed said he ticks all the boxes, but she also said abotu his good eye contact. He does have good eye contact most of the time, except when he switches off and he loses it altogether.

We're beign referred for a formal test, then earlybird, etc. Hopefully avoiding CAHMS But I do want to clear up this eye contact thing.

Eye Contact is not that rare in ASD but I think that purposeful eye contact may be more limited. DS1 has no obvious problem with eye contact and will hold and initiate eye contact for simple social exchanges - However I do see very big differences when compared to DS2's eye contact. I think the test is not really whether eye contact is 'good' in itself but whether the child's use of eye contact has marked impairments when compared to an NT child's

my dd aged 5 asd, has good eye contact except if you ask her a direct question, she also talks to everyone and is the complete oppisite to shy. but is most diff autisic. i dont think that good eye contact can rule out asd.

How would you define purposeful eye contact?

ds wont look at me when he is agitated, or thinking, keeps glancing off to the side. He will generally make eye contact when spoken to if he is in a co-operative and happy mood.

my d shas great eye contact if he is talking to you or looking at you if you ask him a question or someone says hello his eyes shift to the side and he will not look at you

if ill or tired again he will speak with eyes looking the other way iykwim

i know a young lad who has ASD and he stares at you so i would call that great eye contact

on good days ds will hold eye contact very well if he is unsure of things he will look away when talking

I know wat you mean bubblagirl, on a good day dd eye contact is great, tbh i never noticed that she had a problem with eye contact until after dx, dx team noticed straight away thou, she holds her head to one side when looking directly at people but not all the time.

just to add, dunno if this comes under eye contact but if i point at something for expamle an areoplane dd will look elsewhere, she wont look at were in pointing no matter how hard i try.

jsut wondering, does anyone else's child with asd have problems looking at cameras too?

ds will rarely ever look at a camera. Nearly allt he pics of him he is looking off to one side.

yes chops dd never looks straight at the camera- getting her passport photo done was a nightmare took 40 mins and still she was looking to one side, in the end we had to send a doctors note of with the application- thankfully they accepted it.

ds is very much like that mumof3 doesn't matter if im pointing in front of him at at something he'll be spinning in circles trying to get what im pointing at ive given up looking at planes ets as he'll be always the opposite direction lol

cameras i have to remind him to look at me and he will if not he'll look the other way like i have someone standing next to me

some pictures of dd on my profile and she is never looking at the camera

aww, beautiful kids!

There are some on mine too. His aversion to cameras seems to got worse as he has got older.

bubbla just looked at your pics, your son should be in modeling, eye contact or not, he is so cute. loving to thomas waistcoat

chop so cute, aww i could eat your twins, is your son a cross dresser lol

It was for pink day - dd got hold of him, and he did it to win chocolate!

well, at least he's brave, diff deserved the chocolate! he's so lovely

chop's when is ur formal test? have you got a date yet?

No not got a date yet. Paed's hoping to get a colleague to do it to avoid having to send him to cahms. Plus she wants it asap so he can go ont he earlybird scheme, as he will be 8 next june.

he is late getting his dx, i thought dd was late she is 5 1/2 and dx just in sept, i didnt go to cahms is was an autism assesment clinic, actually called "early intervention" hahahaha nothing early about it. but im in northern ireland so things are slightly different, we do have cahms thou. hope you get a date soon, i know how hard it is not knowing for sure.

Point out to the paediatrician that when people with autism have been picked up on eye contact, they may then overcompensate by holding it excessively or constantly (as I do, but I also lose it when replying to a question).

It's not about how much eye contact there is rather than how appropriate it is to the social situation.

HTH

DS1 (severely autistic) uses eye contact as one of his main means of communication. He can use it very well. As do a number of the other severely autistic children involved in my research.

If you want a publication (it's not that easy to find but you could quote it) that talks about competence in eye contact then you could quote

Autistic Children's Co-ordination of Gaze and Talk: Re-examining the 'Asocial' Autist; P.Dickerson, J.Rae, P.Stribling, K.Dautenhahn & I.Werry (2004) which is in Applying Conversation Analysis edited by Richards and Seedhouse

Thanks very much for those.

I have noticed him staring too much sometimes. I also pointed out to the paed, he was answerinmg her questions and making eye contact but he didn't like it one bit and was neaely in tears. He then put on a lovely dispay of twirly danciung aroun the room.

I've been pushing since he was very young. He was dx several years ago with dyspraxia, and social & comm issues and they said if it was asd it would be more apparent now which it def has become.

thank you mumofthree really nice of you he is a sweety lol his outgrown the thomas set now it has matching tie also lol its 3-4 if you have a 3-4 yr old that may like to wear it

bubblagirl my youngest boy is 3 on tuesday, but he is a little fart only wears age 12-18 months lol, he is a big thomas fan to. thanx anyway. you should hold on to it, maybe you'll have another thomas fan , plus it is not an outfit that would go out of fashion quickly.

theworldsgoneDMmad your eye contact is exactly the same as my dd, she overcompensates looking people directly in the eye but then cant look if asked a question.

chopstheduck i really dont think that eye contact is a major issue when it comes to getting the dx, your ds obvouisly has inappropriate eye contact and the pead should know that if he's qualified in dealing with asd!