Reduced social attention is characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It has been suggested to result from an early onset and excessive influence of circumscribed interests (CIs) on gaze behaviour, compared to typically developing (TYP) individuals. To date, these findings have been mixed. The current eye-tracking study utilised a visual…

In the present study, we used a probe-detection task to compare attentional allocation to the eyes versus mouth regions of the face in high-functioning boys with autism relative to normal control boys matched for chronological age and IQs. We found that with upright faces, children from both groups attended more to the eyes region than to the…

Analysis of home videotapes of autistic and normally developing children's first-year birthday parties found that autistic children displayed fewer social and joint attention behaviors and more autistic symptoms. Four behaviors (pointing, showing objects, looking at others, and orienting to name) correctly classified 10 of 11 autistic children and…