Implicit Discrimination of Basic Facial Expressions of Positive/Negative Emotion in Fragile X Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Crawford et al. (2015) watched kids with fragile X and kids with autism look at faces.

The faces showed happy or disgusted expressions.

The team tracked where eyes moved and tested if kids could still tell the emotions apart.

Both groups could spot happy versus disgusted faces without being told.

Kids with fragile X looked at the eyes less than kids with autism.

Even with less eye time, fragile X kids still judged the emotions correctly.

Geurts et al. (2008) used brain scans and saw the same eye-gaze split, giving neural proof for the behavior.

Waldron et al. (2023) later showed preschoolers with non-syndromic autism skip faces more than preschoolers with fragile X, extending the gaze difference to younger ages.

Klein et al. (2024) tried a short gaze-teaching game and found fragile X learners needed extra trials, turning the descriptive finding into a treatment tip.

Song et al. (2016) seems to clash by saying autism kids miss fear in the eyes, yet Hayley’s kids still judged emotions fine; the gap closes when you see Yongning tested fear only, while Hayley used happy and disgust—different emotions, different demands.

When you assess social skills, note eye gaze separately from emotion naming. A fragile X client who looks away may still understand the feeling, so keep demands gentle and do not over-teach labeling. Use the gaze difference as a prompt to reinforce brief eye contact without assuming the child is lost emotionally.