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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
Eye Tracking Young Children with Autism
Published on: March 27, 2012
Eye Tracking Screening for ASD in Nursery: Is Early Diagnosis Possible? A Large-scale Real-life Experiment
Victor Hugo da Silva1,2,3, Yasmine R Martins4, Pedro A S O Neto5
1Instituto PENSI, Fundação José Luiz Setúbal, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. victor.s@ufabc.edu.br.
Insights
Eye-tracking screening effectively identified neurodevelopmental differences in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This method offers a valuable tool for early ASD identification in young children.
Area of Science:
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Pediatric psychology
- Ophthalmology
Background:
- Early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for timely intervention.
- Eye-tracking technology presents a novel approach for assessing neurodevelopmental differences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate eye-tracking as a screening tool for ASD in toddlers aged 7 to 48 months.
- To assess neurodevelopmental alterations in a large cohort of children in vulnerable districts.
Main Methods:
- Eye-tracking assessments measured joint attention skills (Initiation Joint Attention and Responding to Joint Attention).
- Children were categorized into typical development (TD), ASD, and non-typical development (nTD) groups based on clinical diagnosis and developmental assessments.
- Gaze patterns and transitions between areas of interest (AOIs) were compared across groups.
Main Results:
- Children with ASD spent significantly less time looking at facial and target areas of interest compared to other groups.
- The ASD group exhibited fewer transitions between AOIs, indicating differences in visual attention.
- The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for overall mean gaze was 0.65.
Conclusions:
- Eye-tracking screening can identify neurodevelopmental alterations associated with ASD in toddlers.
- This technology serves as an important add-on tool for early ASD identification, particularly before age 3.
- The study highlights the potential of eye-tracking for large-scale screening in vulnerable populations.
Purpose:
The goal of this study was to evaluate eye-tracking screening for ASD among 585 typically developing toddlers 7 to 48 months of age in vulnerable districts of São Paulo.
Methods:
Eye-tracking assessment was done with children in the participating community nurseries on Joint Attention, composed of the Initiation Joint Attention (IJA) and Responding to Joint Attention (RJA). All parents responded to the questionnaire on the educational level and socioeconomic family status (SES). Children received ratings on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) by trained psychologists and those above 25 points underwent consultations with a pediatric neurologist to establish a clinical diagnosis according to DSM-5 criteria. Children were assigned to three groups: TD (typical development), ASD (autism spectrum) and nTD (impaired development without ASD). The groups were compared regarding the mean gaze time and proportion of transition betweene Areas of Interest (AOIs) on face to target and face to distractor.
Results:
ASD group spend less time looking to the Face and Target AOIs than other groups (F [3.73, 765.98] = 2.49, p = .04, η2G = 0.01) and made less transitions (F [2, 411] = 4.33, p < .01, η2G = 0.01). The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve of the overall mean gaze was 0.65.
Conclusion:
This study could identify neurodevelopmental alterations of ASD in a large sample of typically developing children. Considering the screening and diagnosis in ASD children before the age of 3 years old, eye tracking offers an important add-on alternative for early identification.
