Facial Feedback and Social Input: Effects on Laughter and Enjoyment in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Autistic kids do not catch the happy bug from smiles, so check for restricted affect before you change the activity.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched the kids play a funny game. Half had autism, half were typical.
Kids held a pencil in their teeth. Some held it sideways to force a smile. Others held it straight to keep a neutral face.
The game had two parts: alone, and with a smiling adult. Researchers asked, "How funny was it?" They also counted laughs.
What they found
Typical kids laughed more and said the game was funnier when they smiled or saw the adult smile.
Autistic kids laughed the same amount no matter what. Smiles and social cues did not boost their fun.
The flatter their affect, the smaller the boost.
How this fits with other research
Begeer et al. (2006) seems to disagree. They showed autistic kids can look at emotion faces just like typical kids when told the face matters. The trick: Sander gave clear instructions. S et al. used natural play, so the kids had to pick up cues on their own.
Schulte-Rüther et al. (2017) found automatic facial mimicry is intact in autistic youth. Kids copied smiles without thinking. S et al. show that mimicry does not turn into felt enjoyment, mapping a split between motor copy and emotional payoff.
McCormick et al. (2025) scanned brains and found weak frontostriatal response to social rewards in autism. The flat fun ratings in S et al. now have a brain link: social cues light up the reward circuit less, so smiles feel less good.
Why it matters
Do not trust a blank face as boredom. Autistic kids may be having fun even when they do not laugh or smile.
Add explicit cues if you want them to notice social feedback. Say, "Look at my smile; this part is funny," instead of hoping they pick it up.
Pick reinforcers that do not rely on social feedback. Preferred toys, movement, or swimming work better than "I like your smile" praise.
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Join Free →During play, tell the child, "I am smiling because this is funny," and note if the verbal cue lifts enjoyment more than the smile alone.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Both social input and facial feedback appear to be processed differently by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We tested the effects of both of these types of input on laughter in children with ASD. Sensitivity to facial feedback was tested in 43 children with ASD, aged 8-14 years, and 43 typically developing children matched for mental age (6-14), in order to examine whether children with ASD use bodily feedback as an implicit source of information. Specifically, children were asked to view cartoons as they normally would (control condition), and while holding a pencil in their mouth forcing their smiling muscles into activation (feedback condition) while rating their enjoyment of the cartoons. The authors also explored the effects of social input in children with ASD by investigating whether the presence of a caregiver or friend (companion condition), or the presence of a laugh track superimposed upon the cartoon (laugh track condition) increased the children's self-rated enjoyment of cartoons or the amount of positive affect they displayed. Results showed that the group with ASD was less affected by all three experimental conditions, but also that group differences seemed to have been driven by one specific symptom of ASD: restricted range of affect. The strong relationship between restricted affect and insensitivity to facial feedback found in this study sheds light on the implications of restricted affect for social development in ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2016 · doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2545-z