How to Maintain Eye Contact of Autistic Children

Autistic children often do not want to look others in the eye when speaking to them or playing with them. This is a well-documented problem and it can cause concern for parents who are raising an autistic child. Teaching an autistic child the social skills that it takes to maintain eye contact takes time, patience and a little creativity.

Instructions

    • 1

      Use positive reinforcement when you work with an autistic child on any task that you are trying to teach him, including maintaining eye contact. Never punish an autistic child because he will not realize why he is getting punished and it will not reinforce the behavior that you want to teach the child.

    • 2

      Give rewards when the autistic child maintains eye contact. Stickers, candy or anything that you can use that is positive to reinforce the good behavior will help. Find an object that the child likes and reward him with it when he maintains eye contact.

    • 3

      Play on the floor with the autistic child and use the play interaction to gain his trust. Work eye contact into the play. "This guy is looking at the girl when he talks to her. See how she smiles. She looks at him when she talks to him." If you use a running dialog when you play the autistic child will listen to what you say, even if he doesn't respond immediately to it.

    • 4

      Use Relationship Development Intervention to help your child learn to maintain eye contact. This is a type of therapy that is available to parents, teachers and anyone who interacts with the autistic child. This therapy involves building the child's skills up by using the skills that he already has and working with him to learn more skills. If your child maintains eye contact for a second, you can use that to teach him how to maintain eye contact for three seconds. Information about Relationship Development Intervention can be found on the Autism Speaks website (see References).

    • 5

      Contact the autistic child's school and speak with the teachers about incorporating eye contact into the child's yearly Individual Education Plan. This will make maintaining eye contact a priority both at school and at home, and it will let the child work on the skill throughout the day in bits and pieces. Having consistency at school and at home helps an autistic child to maintain eye contact.

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