Brief report: eye direction detection improves with development in autism.

Wallace et al. (2008) compared kids with and without autism on a simple task: tell which way a face is looking.

The groups ranged from 8 to 18 years. The team wanted to know if the autism group would catch up with age.

Younger kids with autism needed bigger eye shifts to notice gaze direction.

By the teen years, the autism group matched the typical group. Eye-direction skill had caught up.

Forgeot d'Arc et al. (2017) ran almost the same task and also saw the gap close by adolescence. Their data is a direct replication.

Cohrs et al. (2017) seems to disagree. They found that youth with autism still look less at social scenes. The difference: their clips were busy videos, not still faces, and their sample was younger on average.

Hanley et al. (2015) extends the story upward. Even bright university students with autism fixate less on eyes during live chat. The teen catch-up in Simon’s lab task may not erase every real-life gaze difference.

Late childhood could be your sweet spot. Target social-skills drills that hinge on reading eyes between ages 10-14.

Use clear, close-up photos first. Save busy peer videos for later, after the basic gaze skill is solid.