How Do Children and Adolescents with ASD Look at Animals? A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Animal-Assisted Interventions

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves social interaction and communication differences.
• Individuals with ASD often benefit from animal interactions, unlike human interactions.
• Visual attention differences may explain varied human-animal interaction experiences in ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of research on visual attention to animals in youth with ASD.
• To examine methodologies, summarize findings, and identify factors influencing attention.
• To understand how youth with ASD observe animals.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review of peer-reviewed journals (1942-2023) using strict inclusion criteria.
• Identification and analysis of 21 relevant studies.
• Thematic analysis of findings into attentional engagement, visual exploration, and behavior.

Main Results:

• Visual attention patterns of youth with ASD towards animals in 2D images are comparable to neurotypical individuals.
• Eye gaze patterns indicate similar engagement and detection when viewing animals.
• No significant differences were found in attentional engagement and detection in the reviewed studies.

Conclusions:

• Youth with ASD demonstrate comparable visual attention to animals as their neurotypical counterparts, especially in controlled 2D settings.
• The findings suggest that visual attention may not be a primary barrier in human-animal interactions for this population.
• Further research is needed to confirm these findings in real-life, dynamic interactions.