Strategies for perceiving facial expressions in adults with autism spectrum disorder.

Laugeson et al. (2014) watched how adults with autism read real photos of faces.

They wanted to know if these adults still use clear rules like “wide mouth plus raised cheeks equals happy.”

The team used a single-case design and checked tolerance for exaggerated expressions.

Adults with ASD handled over-done faces better than expected.

They leaned on rule-based thinking to sort happy, sad, angry, and surprised photos.

The old finding that used cartoon faces now held true for real human pictures.

Gordon et al. (2014) trained children to MAKE faces and also saw gains. Together the papers show the whole loop — see rules, then show rules — can work across ages.

Hadjikhani et al. (2015) gave adolescents the drug bumetanide for ten months and saw brain and emotion gains. Their pill-plus-imaging study extends the target work by hinting biology can be nudged too.

Patton et al. (2020) looks like a clash: they say adults with mild autistic traits have worse theory-of-mind. The gap fades when you notice R studied sub-clinical traits, while A studied diagnosed ASD adults who were taught a clear rule set. Different people, different tasks, no real fight.

You can add a five-minute rule drill to adult social groups. Post a cue card that lists two features per emotion and have clients label photos until they hit 90% for two rounds. It costs nothing, needs no pills, and now has data across ages. Try it Monday.