Human Gaze and Autism

With this book, the author intends to help parents and guardians recognize Autism in their young children so an early diagnosis can rule out bad parenting. I.e., My child will grow out of it' attitude. Intervention can start and help can be found. Looking at the way normal children grow and mature, it is obvious that their development follows a certain pattern and goes through stages. For normally developing children these patterns and stages are practically similar. For children with autism this is not the case. Joint attention is a necessary skill for cognitive skills such as social referencing, language acquisition and learning through modeling behaviors of others around you. Without the ability of joint attention children would not be able to learn how to speak or get their parents attention when they want something. Problems with gaze following and eye contact before the age of two are associated with autism. There is a relationship between gaze following, eye contact and other childhood diseases. This book also makes recommendations for future research.