Expert: Ettina - 1/30/2009

Question
I have a 9 year old son with PDD-NOS. I have a 2 part question. Can you tell me why these children can not sustain eye contact. Is it easier to concentrate when not visually distracted or is it they lose interest and are off looking for their next stimulant. The next question is when my son runs he does so with his head up looking at the sky. Why does he do this? Is this similar to his problem with lack of eye contact? I hope you can shed on these 2 issues.

Answer
Most peoples' brains are designed to notice and pay attention to eyes. Since many autistics are somewhat visually hypersensitive, this is amplified, resulting in eyes being either very distracting or actually painful (overloading). Autistics with mild visual hypersensitivity might avoid eye contact because it's distracting, those with more sensitivity avoid eye contact because it's too overloading for them. The tendency for some autistic people to look at things out of the corner of their eyes is also due to visual hypersensitivity.
There are also some autistics who don't have an aversion to eye contact. Some of these people have normal eye contact, some willingly make eye contact but don't coordinate it well socially (eg staring at someone, or alternately not looking at them) and some just don't notice eyes the way most people do.
It's more common for autistic people to walk staring at their feet than at the sky, partly to avoid visual stimulation and partly because some have trouble with motor skills and will trip if they don't watch their feet. So, I'm not sure why your son prefers to stare up at the sky. A couple possibilities I can think of:
* he might be obsessed with clouds, planes, birds, or something else sometimes seen in the sky, and he's looking for that.
* he likes the feel of having his head tilted back, or that feeling is beneficial to him somehow.
* he likes to stare at the source of light, possibly because being mildly overloaded can be fun (it's exciting), or because it helps block out something else.