Shorter average look durations to dynamic social stimuli are associated with higher levels of autism symptoms in young autistic children.
Samantha Major, Dmitry Isaev, Jordan Grapel and 9 others
PMID 34903084WHAT IT FOUND
Young autistic children who sustained attention for shorter periods on a social video showed more severe autism symptoms, poorer communication skills, and more social withdrawal.
Traditional measures of where they looked did not correlate with these symptoms.
Key findings
01Shorter average look duration across the entire video was associated with higher global autism severity, reduced communication skills, and increased social withdrawal.
02Traditional area-of-interest measures, specifically the proportion of time spent looking at the actress, showed no statistically significant associations with autism characteristics after controlling for age and IQ.
03Levels of hyperactivity symptoms reported by caregivers were not significantly associated with the length of the children's looks.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used baseline data from a clinical trial with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, so the results may not apply to the broader population of autistic children. Children were prompted to look back at the screen if they looked away, which may have interfered with measuring natural, spontaneous sustained attention. The study did not include children with ADHD or neurotypical children, so it cannot determine if these attention patterns are specific to autism or shared with other conditions.
Declared interests
The research was supported by non-U.S. government and NIH extramural funding. One member of the research team is on the autism spectrum and contributed to the study design and writing.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret shorter look durations as a simple lack of interest or engagement. The authors note that longer fixations could sometimes reflect 'sticky attention' or reduced flexibility, though their data supported the view that longer looks correlated with better skills. The association is correlational, not causal.