Uta Frith's comment
17 Apr 2014, 9:34 pm
Adamantium wrote:
In the US, the relevant severity levels are: Requiring support, requiring substantial support, and requiring very substantial support. If the proposed "Severe degree" in question encompasses all of these, then it makes sense. If it only includes the highest level, or the substantial support and above, then it's silly and harmful and will be ignored by the people who actually face managing clinical needs.
Makes sense. Thanks.
19 Apr 2014, 1:42 pm
daydreamer84 wrote:
outsidein wrote:
daydreamer84 wrote:
I've heard that research shows ASDers don't actually fixate the mouth more than the eyes or there was evidence refuting that anyway. Is that what you're talking about, eye-tracking studies that had showed autistic people fixate the mouth more?
I found this article on the subject:
link
Interesting.
This one too:
link2
I found this article on the subject:
link
Interesting.
This one too:
link2
Daydreamer can you give a full citation for those refs? The links only work if you're a member of the University of Toronto :D
Sorry. :oops: I'll try to post the PDFs.
link2pdflink1pdf
Okay, it lets me post the PDFs for awhile and then starts asking for login.
Citations:
Visual Attention to Competing Social and Object Images by Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum DisorderTouchstone, Emily W, Sasson, Noah JJOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS, V. 44 (3), 03/2014, p. 584-592
Abstract
"Eye tracking studies of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report a reduction in social attention and an increase in visual attention to non-social stimuli, including objects related to circumscribed interests (CI) (e.g., trains). In the current study, fifteen preschoolers with ASD and 15 typically developing controls matched on gender and age (range 24–62 months) were eye tracked while viewing a paired preference task of face and object stimuli. While co-varying verbal and nonverbal developmental quotients, preschoolers with ASD were similar to controls in their visual attention to faces presented with objects unrelated to CI, but attended significantly less than controls to faces presented with CI-related objects. This was consistent across three metrics: preference, prioritization and duration. Social attention in preschoolers with ASD therefore appears modulated by salience of competing non-social stimuli, which may affect the development of both social and non-social characteristics of the disorder."
Visual social attention in autism spectrum disorder: Insights from eye tracking studiesBaduel, Sophie, Rogé, Bernadette, Guillon, Quentin, Hadjikhani, NouchineNEUROSCIENCE & BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS, 02/2014
"We review different aspects of visual social attention in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) from infancy to adulthood in light of the eye-tracking literature. We first assess the assumption that individuals with ASD demonstrate a deficit in social orienting together with decreased attention to socially relevant stimuli such as faces compared to TD individuals. Results show that social orienting is actually not qualitatively impaired and that decreased attention to faces does not generalized across contexts. We also assess the assumption that individuals with ASD demonstrate excess mouth and diminished eye gaze compared to TD individuals. We find that this assumption receives little support across ages and discuss some factors that might have initially lead to this conjecture. We report that the assessment of the ability to follow
the direction of another person’s gaze needs to be further examined and that eye-tracking studies add to the evidence that individuals with ASD demonstrate difficulties in interpreting gaze cues. Finally, we highlight innovative data acquisition and analyses that are increasingly shedding light on the more subtle nature of the profound social difficulties experienced by individuals with ASD."
Imo, this kind of material actually stops enquiry into what autism really is and keeps autistic people and people in general from really beginning to understand autism. In fact, it is much like a preschooler's eyes moving more toward pictures of a train rather than human faces.
Quote:
Social attention in preschoolers with ASD therefore appears modulated by salience of competing non-social stimuli, which may affect the development of both social and non-social characteristics of the disorder.
Whoop de doo!:-)
Of course it is understandable that persons putting their own time, money and effort into making a profession of proliferating this kind of material, perhaps especially if they themselves are autistic and it is their own special interest, but it applies to anyone, actually, and no matter how sincere their intent to help other people, will place a much greater value than the average person upon the significance of this kind of material and will attempt under the guise of professionalism to exaggerate its significance and make it seem much more important than it actually is,,,,and many naive people n the general public will buy into this kind of stuff quite easily...
(It must be noted that the average therapist is approaching from a much more holistic angle, though they may be in some ways doing the same thing, too).
