title: Face-viewing patterns in young children with autism spectrum disorders: speaking up for the role of language comprehension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to examine whether viewing patterns toward the mouth, eyes, and nonmouth-noneyes areas differed between young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children when viewing a person speaking. The role of language comprehension in such viewing patterns was also examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven children with ASD (approximately 4.5 years old) and 29 TD toddlers (approximately 2.5 years old) participated. The groups were matched on language comprehension raw scores from the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III. All children viewed short films of a woman speaking while their eye movements were recorded with eye-tracking equipment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children with ASD spent proportionally less time viewing the mouth and more time viewing the nonmouth-noneyes areas. Time viewing the eyes did not differ between groups. Increased mouth viewing was associated with lower language comprehension in the group with ASD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Variability in language comprehension is an important factor to monitor when interpreting face-viewing patterns in young children with ASD, particularly with regard to mouth viewing. The results may help explain divergent findings in this field of research.
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Asberg Johnels
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gillberg
authors.forename: Terje
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Falck-Ytter
authors.forename: Carmela
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miniscalco
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D005123:Eye; D005133:Eye Movements; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009055:Mouth; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*