Gaze Patterns

Behavioural characteristics associated with autistic spectrum conditions are inappropriate eye contact, repetitive movement, stiffened motor control and literal interpretation. Individuals may exhibit such behaviours because they feel ‘safe’ when carrying out the repetitive movement and have a lack of social awareness so make inappropriate eye contact and may be very stiff in themselves because they lack a means of expressing themselves comfortably. They may also become highly stressed if routine is disrupted or sense are overloaded. If

Bondy, A., & Frost, L. (2002). A Picture's Worth: PECS and Other Visual Communication Strategies in Autism. Topics in Autism. Woodbine House, 6510 Bells Mill Rd., Bethesda, MD 20817.

A well-known ASD adult, Temple Grandin suggests caregivers of ASD children that if the environments are organized to the “think in pictures” nature of ASD children, learning will be a lot easier for such children. She explains this nature to the Language-based thinkers as she translates every word that she hears or reads into the pictures and even movies. (Grandin, 1996) According to literature reviews conducted by Dettmer (2000) and Meadan(2011), the researches up to date the papers were published, agreed on the success of using visual supports to aid ASD children to social interactions, sequence and organize their life, transitions between activities, maintain attention, auditory processing, and behavioral challenges (Dettmer et al.,

His repertoire has increased by 2-3 word phrases, and he has started to show interest in others. He is now capable of recognizing familiar faces and maintaining eye contact during social interactions. By following the structure of Leo’s program and with the guidance of the Behavior Analyst, I have helped Leo accomplish his targeted goals. Therefore, similar to the Behavior Analyst on Leo’s case, I aim to provide children with ASD with the necessary skills to prosper and grow as individuals. I want to help these children close the gap of limitations by understanding the importance of using functional communication, engaging in appropriate behavior, and comprehending social norms. Hence, my experience working with the Behavior Analyst has helped solidify my passion for pursuing this profession.

Currently, autism is usually diagnosed by a series of questionnaires, observations, information from parents, carers, or relatives, since there is no medical test for autism currently available, however, there are some new methods being researched that are shown to be quite effective at detecting autism in infants from 14 months old, such as “eye gaze tracking”3. There are also various studies on genetic tests for autism, as some individuals with autism have genetic “risk factors” that can be screened

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014) autism spectrum disorder is a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. Two of these challenges are decreased joint attention and decreased communication (Schertz & Odom, 2007; Coolican, Smith, & Bryson, 2010; Lord, et.al., 2000; Siller, & Sigman, 2002; Rocha, Schreibman, & Stahmer, 2007). Joint attention is defined as visually coordinating attention with a partner to an external focus, showing social engagement and an awareness of the partner’s mutual interest for the purpose of ‘‘commenting’’ rather than ‘‘requesting’’(Schertz & Odom, 2007). The CDC (2014) estimates that about 1 in 68 children has

According to Simmons et al. (2009), autism is classified as a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction, social communication, and an unusually restricted range of behaviors and interests. Along with behavioral and social impairments, a diagnosis of autism also requires a clinically significant delay in language development before the age of three. Asperger Syndrome has similar signs and symptoms to autism without the language delay. Together with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), these disorders form the category of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Simmons et al., 2009). Because the signs and symptoms of ASDs are almost entirely behavioral, a variety of tests, interviews, and direct or indirect observations are used in different combinations based on age and/or language level to receive the most reliable diagnosis. Although there is controversy regarding the increased prevalence of ASDs, it is obvious that there is higher regard for understanding the nature of these disorders, causing an increase of research related to this field of study. It is to be noted, however, that there are a handful of general issues to be addressed when running experiments with afflicted individuals. These issues include: which part of the autism spectrum to target, how to convey instructions and maintain attention in severely affected individuals, difficulty recruiting volunteers due to social reticence, and a change of

The ability to make eye contact among autistic children seems to have created a puzzle with a challenge. This puzzle has not yet been resolved or put together, at the present time. This is one of the common symptoms that occurs with the disorder of autism.

A common methodology for exploring the concept of face emotion recognition in individuals with ASD is the comparing of brain activation in response to human faces compared to nonhuman faces or objects. A key aspect of social cognition is being able to look at someone’s face and interprete how that individual is feeling. This is something that has been continuously found to be lacking in individuals with ASD. Multiple studies have been conducted using human emotions, the faces of animals, and inanimate objects such as houses. Whyte (2016) used animal faces an human faces to measure activity in the high-functioning autism (HFA) brain compared to the TD brain. The fMRI scan results exhibited overall hypoactivation in the HFA individuals when compared to the TD control individuals. Another interesting discovery that has been found consistently is the the FHA/ASD individuals displayed higher activation in the facial-functioning areas when viewing animals than human faces. When compared to the TD participants, the HFA individuals did not have any difference in the morphology of the brain structures under observation (Whyte, Behrmann, Minshew, Garcia, & Scherf, 2016) The fact that a difference in activation was found without any difference in the

With a view to diagnosing whether a child is suffered from ASD, advancing diagnostic evaluation is a must. The widely accepted symptoms of Autism are depicted by DSM-5 categorization: ASD patients start to develop autism disorder since their early life, resulting in impairing social skills to sustain a reciprocal relationship and forming repetitive behaviour, which affect their daily functioning (APA, 2013). Psychologists evaluate ones’ condition through upon behavioural assessment, and they rely on it to execute different types of psychological intervention, including drug treatment, behavioural training and inclusion strategies on dfdfd to integrate soc.

The treatment I chose to discuss was a study done in 2011 by Hopkins, Gower, Perez, Smith, Amthor, Wimsatt, & Biasini who utilized a computer based interactive software intervention treatment to enhance social skills in students with ASD. The software, called FaceSay was designed for the purpose of the study. The children in this study practiced eye gaze, expression matching and face recognition with interactive avatar assistants.

Complex impairments observed in ASD patients are caused by a number of biological and environmental factors; these factors to ASD have gone through years of research and have sufficient evidence to support their truthfulness. Beginning with biological factors, “ASD abnormalities may result in abnormal mechanisms for brain development which may lead to structural and functional brain abnormalities,” a peer reviewed article by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association claims. The development of the brain is key and problems arise with genetic code development involving multiple brain regions, this can also include the frontal and anterior temporal lobes, caudate, and cerebellum. Relating to the frontal and temporal lobes, there is an increased

British psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen states that “autistic individuals are unable to understand the ideas and emotions of others and their eye contact avoidance is an indication that they can’t feel empathy towards other people.” However, research revealed in Scientific Report claims that “lack of eye contact in autistic people doesn’t prove the absence of empathy, but the nervousness that overstimulation creates.”

Over the past decade, the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased at a rapid rate (MacFarlane & Kanaya, 2009). “Autism spectrum disorder is defined as a heterogeneous, behaviorally identifiable neurodevelopment disorder that occurs in 1 in 150 children (Press & Richman, 2013).” During the infancy and toddlerhood stage, a baby showing signs of ASD will typically have an absence of normal brain development, which can hinder their physical development specifically their perceptual development of vision (Berk, 2014). For example, a baby with normal brain development will begin to make eye contact with their caregiver at approximately 8 weeks of age during daily feedings; in comparison a baby showing signs of abnormal brain development will struggle with making directly eye contact with their caregiver during the same daily feedings (MacFarlane & Kanaya, 2009). Jake, a 3-year-old boy was diagnosed with ASD at 18 months of age. Jake has been struggling with making direct eye contact with others since his early infancy and toddlerhood and it has continued throughout his early childhood (Carbone, O’Brien, Sweeney-Kerwin, & Albert, 2013). “A substantial number of children with autism fail to develop this important skill and therefore experimenters with both develop- mental and behavior

Autism is a unique disability for individual who are diagnose with autism to have as it explains different forms of how the mind works. As students with autism vary from a range of non-verbal to a form of highly intelligent, the role of an educators and parents plays an important part of their growth and well-being. Through my research, I have notice that a majority of researchers express that a diagnoses of autism involves their lacks of inability in adaptive, cognitive, expressive, receptive, personal and social skills and therefore they need early intervention to be able to strengthen their skills. In this paper, I will focus on the factor of joint attention and how it plays an important relationship to the student’s inability of adaptive, cognitive, expressive, receptive, and personal/social skills as they relate to joint attention. In addition, I will provide understanding of what is joint attention and its importance will help any educator and parent improve their student’s skill with autism.