Re: Question about eye contact

August 25, 2008

Although my daughter (5) is not officially dx yet, we have a huge problem

with this with her too! Eye contact even with us is difficult at times, and

it's usually when we are wanting to be sure she is understanding what we

say, sometimes it seems deliberate, but I'm careful to not just assume that

things like that ARE deliberate, because truth be told I just don't know.

Also Pennie, I can't for the life of me find the article now, but last year

sometime I read a thing about kids and eye contact, and while it was more

geared toward kids/people with ADHD, I found that it's very liable to be

true for kids on the spectrum too.

Anyway basically it was a study that said that when they studied a group of

children of various ages and asked them questions, ALL children had to look

away from the person briefly to answer them, but would regain eye contact

within a few seconds... but that children with ADHD consistantly looked away

for a longer time than their peers without ADHD... They were saying that the

eye contact was too much stimulation and did not allow for their brians to

process and answer the question without looking away.

Now it could very well be that what I'm seeing in is her ADHD,

because I see this in both my girls, but it is very much more prevalent in

(who I suspect to be on the spectrum).

Theresa

>

> When Kassiane stayed with us a couple of years ago, I asked her about

> eye

> contact. She said it is physically painful and it's just to hard to process

> what

> people are saying or doing when she has to look at people in the eye.

>

> Pennie

> Abby's Mom

>

> **************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your

> travel

> deal here.

>

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