How 18-month-olds with Later Autism Look at Other Children Interacting: The Timing of Gaze Allocation.
Charlotte Viktorsson, Sven Bölte, Terje Falck-Ytter
PMID 37642874WHAT IT FOUND
The first planned looking measure did not show the expected shift; in a later window, toddlers later diagnosed with autism looked less at a girl's face after a boy asked her for a toy than elevated-likelihood toddlers without autism.
Key findings
01In a delayed window after the boy reached for the toy, toddlers later diagnosed with autism looked less at the girl's face than elevated-likelihood toddlers without autism (0.482 versus 0.589, p = .037).
02The pre-specified window did not show the expected increase; the low-likelihood group looked less at the girl's face after the reach than before it (0.518 versus 0.595, p < .001).
03There was no group difference in general looking at both faces across the videos (F(2,91) = 0.649, p = .525).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
11 children were excluded for invalid eye tracking data, leaving 16 children in the autism group. The main positive finding came from a time window chosen after the researchers looked at the data, not from the first planned window. The significant group difference was between elevated-likelihood children who did and did not receive an autism diagnosis; the autism and low-likelihood comparison was not significant. The videos were very similar, so the result may not extend to many kinds of social scenes. Most parents were reported as White, so the sample may not reflect the wider population. No treatment was tested, and the eye-tracking task was not evaluated as a clinical diagnostic tool.
Declared interests
The funding statement names Uppsala University as funder. The supplied text gives no other conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat reduced gaze at the girl's face as a diagnostic test or a reason to change therapy. The finding came from 16 children with later autism, used a time window chosen after seeing the data, and the autism and low-likelihood group difference was not significant.