Eye-hand coordination in children with high functioning autism and Asperger's disorder using a gap-overlap paradigm.
Kids with ASD show normal eye-gap effects but no hand-gap effects when pointing—expect slower, less coordinated reach-to-target responses.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Crippa et al. (2013) watched kids with high-functioning autism point at targets on a screen. The team used a gap-overlap task. Sometimes the first light stayed on, sometimes it vanished before the target appeared.
They timed both eye shifts and hand reaches. The goal was to see if the kids got the usual speed boost when the first light disappeared.
What they found
The children moved their eyes on cue just like typical peers. Their hand movements told a different story. When the first light vanished, their reaches did not speed up at all.
Missing this hand-gap effect shows weaker eye-hand coordination in autism. The eyes were ready, but the hands lagged behind.
How this fits with other research
Kovarski et al. (2019) seems to disagree. They found kids with autism move their eyes faster than peers during visual search. The clash fades when you see the tasks: reflex gap-overlap here, free viewing there. Speed helps in search but not in tight point-and-reach timing.
Lindor et al. (2018) extend the story. They show visual-search perks vanish when motor skills are weak. Poor motor control may explain both absent hand-gap effects and lost visual strengths.
Lemons et al. (2015) map eye delays too. They report slower saccades in high-functioning autism, yet Alessandro saw normal eye-gap timing. Together they tell us which eye metrics stay intact and which slip.
Why it matters
If you run tabletop or touchscreen tasks, expect slower reaches even when gaze looks fine. Give clients extra response time or simplify the reach. Pair eye cues with clear hand targets and motor prompts. Checking motor skill level, like Ebony suggests, can save you from overstating visual strengths and help set realistic reach goals.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We investigated eye-hand coordination in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in comparison with age-matched normally developing peers. The eye-hand correlation was measured by putting fixation latencies in relation with pointing and key pressing responses in visual detection tasks where a gap-overlap paradigm was used and compared to fixation latencies in absence of manual response. ASD patients showed less efficient eye-hand coordination, which was particularly evident when pointing towards a target was being fixated. The data of normally developing participants confirmed that manual gap effects are more likely for more complex hand movements. An important discrepancy was discovered in participants with ASD: beside normal eye gap effects, they showed no concurrent hand gap effects when pointing to targets. This result has been interpreted as a further sign of inefficient eye-hand coordination in this patient population.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2013 · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1623-8