Eye Contact | Autism PDD

I'm not a big fan of forcing eye contact, but I do think it's important that my nonverbal ds looks at my mouth to help him to learn to pronounce words. I bring a desired object (in his case something like a cookie, or his drink) up to my mouth while I say the name of the object. If he looks at my face even for a nanosecond I let him have whatever that I'm holding, then I praise him. This is how his teacher has taught me to implement PECS. I think it could be used to help with facilitate eye contact, too.

Sarah had very sporadic eye contact it usually had to be on her terms and when she wanted something.  We did a lot of prompting at the park on swings, slides and rolling ball back and forth and all joint activities... in ABA program all tasks began with sit down followed by "look at me"...now she is does it effortlessly now that people would never know it was a problem. She knows to look at me to get my attn.... as I told her I can only hear her well when she is looking at me:)

I never felt it was hard for her but more of a lack of  motivation..it wasn't painful or sensory related just total  indifference to looking at anyone.. we had to make people mean more than things or objects.

I believe that "forcing" eye contact has fallen out of favor...When Andrew started special needs pre-K at age 2 1/2, the recommendation was to gently turn his head or his body so that he would make eye contact.  That no longer is recommended.  Encouraging a child through song, praise, positive reinforcement, etc. is preferred according to the autism specialists I work with now.Jasper's eye contact has gotten better with family. The only time I try to help
him is when he is speaking to a someone outside of his circle. They often
do not realize he is addressing them because he is looking the other way.
It's hard not to intervene, because I know how hard he worked to ask his
question and I can see how frustrated he gets when no one answers him,
after repeating himself several times. So, I try to limit my encouragement to
just that area.
But like any behavior with our kids, positive reinforcement is key.
This may sound unorthodox, but I would try looking at each other with your
peripheral vison first. You would be surprised how many kids I worked with
in the past responded to this and some were able to tolerate more direct
contact over time.

I'm very new to all of this and my own un-researched thought is that "forced" eye contact has worked well for us.  For the first 5 years of her life she had no eye contact with anyone.  If she looked at you for 5 seconds.....it felt like Christmas morning that is how rare it was......As you can guess we didn't force any eye contact for those early years, but now before I say anythign I say "Look at me" and then say it or turn her head to whoever new has walked into the room, etc.....

 

For us....it is a huge leap of improvement.....could also be tied to maturity ?  You never can fully know what behavior is an absolute result of what tool, can you ?

But for us, the reminder to look and the physical turn are something I couldn't do without !

my son was born with almost no eye contact. the only way hed look at you is to be in the dark and hed pull your face toward his under blankets or pillows and rub face to face. we used to call it face loveys becus it was the closest thing to a snuggle or hug wed see for over a year. i never forced him or held his face, but i was kinda in your face in a loving way. any chance hed give me for some fleeting peeks id take them. and not to get off subject or promote biomed, etc......i must say that getting eye contact from my son (altho it was slow over several months) did not truly happen until i removed dairy from his diet. i did it for gi and found it affected everything. just a thought!Hi I,m not really sure that making eye ontact is always helpful to the person with autism is that helpful. It just makes those who are NT feel comfortable. I have read something by Donna Williams (who has autism and is a published author and public speeaker) that having to make eye contact and listen at the same time is very distracting and then she can't focous on what someone issaying.  How do those of you who are on the spectrum feel about hving to make eye contact?? I appreciate it is different for everyone. LizHi- I am working on this with my son quite a bit.  I use snack time and meals to try to establish eye contact before each bite.  I also now have kind of a general rule that he must look at me or touch an item he wants.  I praise him every time he does it prompted or unprompted.  Singing will generally get me some very good direct looks- then I try to do something with that attention.  Keep at it!  PM me if you come up with something that works- I am open to anything also!

Singing songs - and adding gestures to them

The wheels on the bus , twinkle twinkly little star are all great for eye contact

Here are some ways you can promote eye contact with your child:

1. As you go about your daily activities, count the number of times your child actually looks at your eyes. When does it usually happen? Is it when he wants something? During a particular game? When you sing songs? Use this information to find his motivators.

2. During floor time play, sit facing your child and make many attempts to look at her during your exchanges. As you speak, look into her eyes. Try to increase the frequency and duration of eye gaze. Start with small successes and set goals for improvement.

3. Use motivators. Find a toy or object that is stimulating to your child. Withhold it temporarily and say, "look at my eyes." Reward the child for good eye contact.

4. Use "playing dumb" techniques to encourage your child's use of language. As your child requests what he wants, get down to his eye level and look at him inquisitively while you're listening. Typically a child who is motivated and really wants something, like a cookie or drink, will make some kind of eye contact during the request, especially if you're pretending not to understand. (Click on the link to learn about the "playing dumb" technique.)

5. Try to make better eye contact with all the people you have relationships with. Your spouse, co-workers, children, and relatives will start feeling a greater sense of connectedness to you. Parents need practice too. And besides, you'll be more in the habit of using it with your special child.

 

 

I recently subscribed to Autism pro virtual expert.

Today I did five of the first activities with Sharlet.  They focused on eye contact.
Within about 2 hours of working with her I got her to maintain eye contact with me through most of the song "If you're happy and you know it"

This is a huge breakthrough for us.  Autism pro is amazing and we are already seeing results.  The exercises are simple it's just that I wouldn't have thought to do the specific things I needed to do.  I have done so much work with Sharlet and haven't had a lot of progress really.  Now that I have professionally designed tasks to target each issue I think things will move a lot faster.
where can i subscribe to Autism pro virtual expert? go to http://www.autismpro.com/

You can do the first steps 30 day free trial.
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