Imitating the autistic child: facilitating communicative gaze behavior.

Six non-verbal autistic kids played with toys while an adult copied them.

The adult matched the child’s exact moves and objects for 10 minutes.

Later the adult played without copying to see the difference.

When the adult copied, kids looked at the adult’s face twice as often.

Each gaze also lasted longer—about 3 seconds instead of 1.

The change showed up in every child within the first session.

Yoder et al. (1981) ran the same copy-cat game three years earlier. They saw more toy touching; the new paper shows the trick also lifts eye contact.

Espinosa (2025) says don’t drill eye contact—just make social time fun. Copying play is exactly that kind of natural reinforcer.

Crippa et al. (2013) looks like a clash: they found autistic kids don’t copy more after happy faces. The key difference is what was measured—Alessandro watched hand moves, not eye gaze. Eyes seem to follow imitation even when hands don’t.

You can run this tactic today. Sit on the floor, echo the child’s toy moves, and wait. Eye contact rises without extra drills or tokens. Use the moments that follow to name objects or give smiles so gaze earns real pay-offs.