Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) attend typically to faces and objects presented within their picture communication systems

Gillespie-Smith, K.; Riby, D.M.; Hancock, P.J.B.; Doherty-Sneddon, G.

doi:10.1111/jir.12043

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) attend typically to faces and objects presented within their picture communication systems

Gillespie-Smith, K.; Riby, D.M.; Hancock, P.J.B.; Doherty-Sneddon, G.

Authors

K. Gillespie-Smith

Professor Deborah Riby deborah.riby@durham.ac.uk
Professor

P.J.B. Hancock

G. Doherty-Sneddon

Abstract

ackground Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may require interventions for communication difficulties. One type of intervention is picture communication symbols which are proposed to improve comprehension of linguistic input for children with ASD. However, atypical attention to faces and objects is widely reported across the autism spectrum for several types of stimuli. Method In this study we used eye-tracking methodology to explore fixation duration and time taken to fixate on the object and face areas within picture communication symbols. Twenty-one children with ASD were compared with typically developing matched groups. Results Children with ASD were shown to have similar fixation patterns on face and object areas compared with typically developing matched groups. Conclusions It is proposed that children with ASD attend to the images in a manner that does not differentiate them from typically developing individuals. Therefore children with and without autism have the same opportunity to encode the available information. We discuss what this may imply for interventions using picture symbols.

Citation

Gillespie-Smith, K., Riby, D., Hancock, P., & Doherty-Sneddon, G. (2013). Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) attend typically to faces and objects presented within their picture communication systems. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 58(5), 459-470. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12043

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	May 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Dec 4, 2013
Publicly Available Date	Dec 16, 2014
Journal	Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
Print ISSN	0964-2633
Electronic ISSN	1365-2788
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	58
Issue	5
Pages	459-470
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12043
Keywords	Autism spectrum disorder, Communication, Cognitive behaviour, Eye-tracking.

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Gillespie-Smith, K., Riby, D. M., Hancock, P. J. B. and Doherty-Sneddon, G. (2014), Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) attend typically to faces and objects presented within their picture communication systems. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 58 (5): 459–470, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jir.12043. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.