How to improve eye contact in autism is a question that bothers every parent and educator of an autistic child.
By improving eye contact in an autistic child you can help them have meaningful connections with family and friends along with increasing their communication and interpersonal skills.
We have curated a list of tips and strategies to help you in your goal. These strategies and insights will go beyond conventional approaches and create a supportive environment for the child that acknowledges the different ways in which connections can be built.
So let’s go deep and check how to improve eye contact in autistic children.
What causes Lack of Eye Contact in Autism?
Most children or adults with autism do not make eye contact during a conversation. This behaviour has usually been seen as a sign of social indifference. But people with autism say it’s because looking into someone’s eyes feels uncomfortable or even painful.
This suggests that the issue may have a neurological basis. Recently, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital studied this and published their findings and that has helped understand this behavior of autistic children.
Instead of looking into the eyes, people with autism try to compensate for the discomfort they feel when they make eye contact by looking at something other than the person speaking to them.
Some studies on eye contact difficulty in autistic children reveal the neural complexities of their brain functioning. Recent research sheds light on a crucial region known as the dorsal parietal cortex, showing its unique role in the difficulties autistic children face when they try to make eye contact.
This discovery shows the importance of understanding the neurological basis of these challenges.
The causes of Eye Contact Difficulties are:
Dorsal Parietal Cortex Activation
Recent studies indicate that the dorsal parietal cortex, a brain region critical for eye contact, may not activate properly in autistic children. It helps you with activities like sense of direction, visual selection, and eye movement control.
Impaired Short And Long Eye Contact
The inadequate activation of the dorsal parietal cortex leads to the difficulty autistic children experience in maintaining both short and long eye contact.
What Considerations should you make before helping a child make Eye Contact?
While considering assisting an autistic child to make eye contact, you need to approach the situation with sensitivity and understanding. You may consider these factors while helping the child make eye contact.
Respect The Child’s Comfort
Some children with autism can find eye contact overwhelming because it feels intense and uncomfortable for them. If you push them too hard, it may stress them, and this will result in the child not engaging in the activity at all.
Focus On The Purpose
Always remember the goal of developing eye contact. You are helping them to engage more fully in social interactions, and not just to achieve eye contact for its own sake. If the child understands and responds to communications without direct eye contact, there is nothing to worry about. So focus more on attention and engagement over eye contact during conversation.
Timing Matters
Think about when to encourage the child for eye contact. If the child is engrossed in an activity, they might struggle to listen to process what you are saying. A glance or any other form of acknowledgement will be fine in such a situation.
Individual Differences
Every child with autism is unique, so what works for one might not work for another. You need to observe the child’s reaction and adjust your approach and strategy accordingly without creating any discomfort for them. Considering their comfort level and encouraging glances at their face is the best way to go ahead with your goal.
Reward Them
You should use rewards to encourage eye contact when it occurs naturally. You can do so by using verbal praise, a smile, or another form of encouragement that the child finds rewarding. This approach helps the child associate eye contact with positive experiences, making it more likely to occur in the future.
Top 13 Strategies for Improving Eye Contact in Autism?
Though you need to recognize and respect each child’s comfort level with eye contact, some strategies can help them improve their ability to engage in eye contact. Here are the top 13 of these strategies:
1. Gradual Exposure
You can start by gradually exposing the child to eye contact in a controlled and supportive environment. Begin with short periods and slowly increase the duration as they become more comfortable. Working on eye contact gradually can help reduce anxiety related to eye contact.
2. Use Visual Supports
You can use visual supports, such as social stories or visual schedules to prepare the child for situations requiring eye contact. These tools provide a visual representation of what to expect, helping to reduce uncertainty and anxiety.
3. Modeling
You can be the model to show the child the importance of eye contact during a conversation. Show appropriate eye contact behaviour by doing it yourself. When they will see you making eye contact, they will learn how to make eye contact in different social situations.
4. Use Interests and Motivations:
You can use the topics and things that interest and motivate the child to encourage eye contact. If there’s a specific topic or activity they are passionate about, incorporate that into social interactions. This can enhance their motivation to engage and make eye contact.
For example, if they are interested in cars or Marvel movies, you could use these interests as topics to teach eye contact.
5. Teach Social Cues
Social cues, such as the requirement for proper eye contact, can be taught within many contexts. Break social situations down into as many smaller parts as possible.
Discuss when eye contact is expected and why. Understanding the reason behind eye contact can make it more meaningful for the autistic child.
For example, you can teach them the importance of eye contact while greeting someone. Practice saying “Hi” without eye contact. Then, add brief eye contact. Role-play different settings (home, public).
Explain how eye contact shows attention and friendliness and when they do not look at the eyes of the person who they are greeting, it won’t look very welcoming to them.
6. Practice in Familiar Settings
You can begin practising eye contact in familiar and comfortable settings before gradually introducing it in new or challenging environments. This approach helps individuals generalize the skill across different situations.
You can do it with family or close friends. Involve the child in practising eye contact during casual conversations at the dinner table while asking for something.
A friend’s place or home is the best familiar setting to practice it. Go slow and then gradually start practicing it in more challenging settings like talking to a cashier in a departmental store.
7. Individualized Approaches
We have already emphasized the fact that each person with autism is unique, and what works for one child may not work for another. Hence, you need to tailor strategies according to the child’s preferences, strengths, and challenges to create a personalized approach to improve eye contact.
For instance, Child A and Child B may respond in their respective ways to enhance eye contact. Child A may be highly motivated by visual stimuli like colorful objects and picture books.
Child A likes routines and tolerates structured activities well. Begin with a game of “Ready, set, look! Use the words then wait until he looks at you to hand him a favorite toy. Gradually, they will associate eye contact with the toy coming their way, and they’ll become quite comfortable initiating eye contact in other circumstances as well.
Child B is pretty playful and likes moving around. You could play catch with a softball. Each time you will pitch it to him, stop and ask him to look at you and then he throws it back. That way you involve eye contact in something they enjoy and play.
8. Social Stories and Roleplaying
Social stories explain how to behave in certain places. Without them, a child might feel shy, embarrassed, or confused and not know what to do.
For example, in a supermarket, they might not make eye contact or have trouble asking for candy.
However, the child will only be able to do that once the entire supermarket situation is described to them. If the role-play of the situation is not done before, the child will feel confused about the situation and will not look at you to tell you that they want a toy or candy.
9. Sensory Integration Strategies
Children with autism are either hypersensitive or hyposensitive to light, sound, texture, smell, taste, feeling of body awareness, or movement sensation.
You may take the help of occupational therapists to design a daily sensory diet plan for the child, which may involve putting an earplug in the child’s ear to reduce sound disturbances or using a textured sponge to apply soap during bathing. Remedial measures such as swinging, aromatherapy, and massaging also help these children.
Be mindful of sensory sensitivities that may increase the discomfort with eye contact. Adjust the environment or use sensory tools to manage these challenges. This will make it easier for the child with autism to engage in eye contact.
10. Keep fewer distractions around while speaking to your child
Minimize distractions when communicating with your child by creating a focused environment. Engage actively in play with your child, as this fosters improved eye contact and reduces the likelihood of distractions.
Given that a child with sensory sensitivities might be overwhelmed by tactile sensations (a sensation created by your skin that detects and sends signals about vibration, pressure, texture, temperature, and pain), it’s advisable to keep the room uncluttered with fewer objects. This approach not only minimizes distractions but also enhances the chances of your child maintaining eye contact during interactions with you.
11. Give your child a reason to make eye contact with you
Motivate your child to focus on your face and forehead by using engaging activities. Organize enjoyable games and actively participate in play with your child. You should use set-up scenarios that encourage them to look upward.
Encourage your child to look towards your forehead and eyes. You can do that by integrating play with objects to draw their attention upward naturally. This will help you make a connection with the objects and motivate the child to make eye contact with your face and forehead during the interactive sessions.
12. Allow a pause for your child to respond after asking questions
Ask simple but straightforward questions to your child. Pay close attention to their reactions while doing so. Inquire about yourself, such as asking “Who am I?” and observe whether the child looks at you or points in your direction.
Make sure that they understand both your language and gestures before expecting any form of response or gesture from your child. This increases effective communication and understanding during these interactions.
13. Use Face Painting or Animal Face Masks
Engage in face painting activities by painting the child’s face and you should allow them to paint your face, too. This not only adds a fun element but also promotes better eye contact. If your child is not fond of painting or is not interested in colours, consider using animal face masks.
Many children have a fascination with animals, and wearing an animal mask may draw the child’s attention and encourage them to look at you in amazement. This provides an alternative and enjoyable approach to enhance connection and eye contact during interactions.
Takeaway
Eye contact is an important part of any conversation. As a parent and caregiver, you need to understand the strategies to help autistic children and the challenges they face while making eye contact.
At the same time, you need to realize that pushing them and being very strict about eye contact can demotivate them further.
That is why we have curated this list of strategies to help you motivate the child to establish eye contact confidently to make a meaningful connection with friends and family.
MedicoExperts has helped many children overcome challenges that come along with autism. Our experts will help you connect with the best doctors and therapists for your child with autism.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Q1. How to reduce self-talk in autistic children?
A: To reduce self-talk, you need to teach an autistic child replacement skills. A replacement skill is a new, positive behaviour that works the same purpose as a challenging behaviour of the child. The idea is that by meeting the same need in a better way, the new behaviour can replace the problematic one.
For a child with autism who engages in self-talk (repeating words or phrases) when feeling anxious or overwhelmed, a replacement skill could be deep breathing or using a fidget toy. Both can help calm the child.
Q2. How to teach an autistic child to talk?
A: To encourage a non-verbal child to talk, you can encourage them to play with peers, imitate your child and encourage them to do the same, give your child the space to talk, use simple language, and use the topics and objects they are interested in.
Q3. Can an autistic child improve eye contact?
A: Autistic children’s eye contact can be improved if they get proper support, and care from their parents, caretaker, and teachers. But at the same time, you should not forget that eye contact is to improve communication and social skills. So, you need not be strict and give them the time and scope to acquire it.
References
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170615213252.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9645655/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7350544/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31451016/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750946722001155
https://storage.outreach.psu.edu/autism/40%20and%2053%20Handout%202.pdf
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Medically Reviewed by MedicoExperts Editorial & Clinical Review Board on 24 September 2024
