Published on 12, July, 2020
I've been here before a couple of times, but keep coming across this idea that somehow eye contact is just something people on the spectrum failed to learn and can somehow be conditioned to resolve.
One of the problems is how do you know when eye contact isn't happening. So many people on the spectrum resolve having the deficiency pointed out to them over and over by looking at another part of the face. I uselessly and pointlessly look at mouths - and am told I appear to have good eye contact!
How do you tell if someone isn't directly making eye contact? I suggest it is quite hard to verify.
Also what is eye contact? I ask this particularly because some people on the spectrum feel they do have good eye contact. But if it isn't coming naturally how do they determine what is good eye contact?
My understanding is that making eye contact is signalling to others that you relate to them, or respect them, or obey them. It is read as a sign of loyalty or aquiescence by the recipient. So people who don't make good eye contact are seen as hostile, deceitful or deviant.
But aside from that, it isn't the eye contact that's important surely? It's the attention to other people's faces to understand how facial expressions qualify the spoken word, or reveal a person's true intentions. (Also it is about what facial expressions the person on the spectrum conveys for others to read, which may be ambiguous or not easily read if the face is often averted).
The point about eye contact/facial expression recognition is that people on the spectrum miss out on social cues, and are much more literal in the interpretation of spoken languge because they don't pick up on the qualifications conveyed by facial expression.
Therefore they do poorly at social interfacing, and lack social referencing (the feed back non autistic people get from social engagement).
Having stated the underlying difficulties, I don't think it is correctable. You can learn something about the meanings of facial expressions (hence all those social stories pictures), but it is no way as efficient as doing it instinctively. And what the scientists forget is that people on the spectrum are not only not reading it properly they are not conveying non-verbal information correctly.
So it does alarm me when I see yet again some 'professional' talking about lack of eye contact as if it is something to be cured.
Isn't it time the basics of autism (rather than just the triad of impairments) were properly understood?
I watch the mouth to help me hear in noisy environments, ie I lip read a little to supplement the sounds. I have been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder, when I had a hearing test recently. My hearing is above average for my age.
Re eye contact, when I was younger, other people gazing at my face made me blush and shrink away from them. I used to think I was shy, but I am actually quite extrovert. Eye contact is uncomfortable, bordering on painful, depending on how strong and happy I am, or unhappy and un-confident. It has a strong emotional effect on me, which reduces my ability to think.
I often feel as though I am made of glass and others know what I am thinking, especially if their eyes bore into me. I find it intrusive at times and at others I fail to say what I am thinking, because I believe they already know.