Using computer‐assisted instruction to increase the eye gaze of children with autism

Miller et al. (2018) built a short computer lesson for three elementary kids with autism. The screen showed faces while a voice said the same name. Kids tapped the matching face.

Each session lasted a few minutes. A camera tracked where the eyes looked. The team asked: does this quick pairing boost eye contact time and speed?

All three children looked at eyes longer after the lessons. They also moved their gaze to the eyes faster.

The gains showed up right away and stayed during later checks.

Jeffries et al. (2016) tried a tablet app alone and saw no eye-growth. Miller adds voice-face pairing and gets clear gains. The difference is the pairing, not the screen.

Pitchford et al. (2019) ran a 15-minute game that rewards face looks and also saw quick gains. Both studies show brief computerized tools can shift social looking in kids with autism.

Liu et al. (2021) watched autistic kids during a joint-attention video and found slow, uneven gaze shifts. Miller’s positive result does not clash; it shows that short teaching can narrow the very gap Qinyi measured.

You can run this lesson on any classroom computer while the rest of the group works. It takes no extra staff once the child can click. Try it as a warm-up before social-skills groups or speech sessions. If eye contact rises, you may spend less time later prompting it during tabletop work.