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Increasing Eye Contact In The Autistic Child Update: Digestive Enzymes have greatly helped improve Zachary's eye contact!!! Something all parents should look into if eye contact is an issue. Update Dec. 2005: When it comes to eye contact issues, an issue too many are completely unaware of is that of potential FACE BLINDNESS in persons on the autism spectrum. This is a critical issue that can go a VERY LONG way in explaining why these children prefer to use peripheral vision, have issues with "reading emotions" and "socialization". Please take the time to read this very, very critical information on FACE BLINDNESS! END OF UPDATE Note: See section on "Zachary's Diet" for information on digestive enzymes. Zachary's eye contact is much much better since I put him on these enzymes (they don't require a prescription). Enzymes have been around for decades, but only recently are we finding them to be valuable in treatment of the autistic. Zachary had been on cod liver oil until recently. He had a severe reaction which I can only attribute to the cod liver oil... and as such, I will never again give him this product! I encourage all parents to read my section as it relates to this topic and to be informed of the issues as they relate to cod liver oil. Essential fatty acids are necessary for brain development. There are many sources that can be used to obtain essential fatty acids (EFA) such as flax seed oil, primrose oil, or borage oil. EFA, in my own experience had greatly helped to "clear up" sideways glances when Zachary was first diagnosed with autism. Cod liver oil, flax seed oil, and primrose oil are good sources of Omega-3, borage oil is a good source of Omega-6 and 9. Cod liver oil can have mercury in it, however, and as such, parents need to make sure they only use a brand that is tested for heavy metal content (see section on Cod Liver Oil for more on that subject). For children who can not tolerate taking these oils orally, rubbing them on their skin as they sleep was a trick I used often. Absorption of cod liver oil through the skin had worked well for us - until recently! With Zachary, in addition to supplements to help with vision issues, I found there were several ways I could work at increasing his eye contact. Note: I encourage all parents to read my section on "Eye Contact - More Than Meets The Eye" because, as I found in Zachary, breaking eye contact was not only a physical/sensory issue, it was also a coping mechanism used by Zachary so that he did not have to deal with frustration in his life. I only came to understand this in July of 2002. The exercises for eye contact as provided below were exercises I used with Zachary before coming to this understanding. The section on Eye Contact - More Than Meets The Eye and on Eye Contact as A Coping Mechanism already went over some of the things I now believed we could do in this specific area. As such, I encourage all parents to read those sections carefully as I now believe these sections are even more valuable than the exercises provided below... although the exercises did help too! Eye Contact Exercises Zachary knew his colors...so, one of the things I did was to ask him: "do you see purple in my eyes?", then, I would answer the question for him, "no, I don't see purple in your eyes"... I pretty well went through every color I could think of that was not in my eyes, and ended with the actual colors in my eyes, "brown, white, black, and yes - even red". Zachary loved circles...that was his favorite shape and so I used that to my advantage too! I would say: "do you see the circle in my eyes?"... "do you see the brown circles?"... "do you see the black circles?", etc. Then I would say: "do you see my oval eyes?"... "do you see the red in my eyes?" Of course, at first, he did not really see the red, so then, I pulled down on the area just below my eyes to show him the red. I then ask him: "do you see the red squiggle lines in my eyes?" ... and show him the red lines/blood vessels of my eyes. That made him aware of new "fascinating things" he had not noticed before. I also said: "do you see Zachary in mommy's eyes?"... to make him focus on the reflection in my eyes. I asked him to "blow on my nose"...or "blow some wind between my eyes" with his mouth. I did anything at all to help focus his attention on that part of my face. I use similar questions to make him focus on my eyelashes, my eyebrows, my eyelid... of course, I always made sure I "labeled" everything for him...that was always critical! What I did not see until recently was that I had to also label the PURPOSE of each eye... this was what I addressed in the sections noted above on eye contact... and that label of the PURPOSE of each eye, in my opinion, was critical to helping Zachary really move forward in terms of eye contact. His eye contact was much better since that simple definition of purpose had finally been provided! Like so many autistic children, Zachary had preferred looking at the mouth area for some reason. I now understood why that was... the mouth provided a single entity in and of itself. The eyes did not provide a "whole" as did the mouth... the eyes provided "parts" to a whole (a face)... there were 2 of them for some reason... and Zachary could not integrate how they fit into the "whole picture" in terms of the face - until I explained that to him as described in my section on Eye Contact - More Than Meets The Eye. I had tried the "look at me" exercises, but found Zachary did not respond well to that. I had always been of the opinion that things should not be "forced" onto Zachary... that there had to be a way of reaching him gently and in a fun way. I always focused on making things as fun as possible for him... on building the relationship. I knew that always saying "look at me" was supposed to help, but, in my heart, I truly felt there had to be a better way... I just had to find it! I also worked on emotions as I worked on eye contact, saying: "do you see mommy's happy eyes?".... "oh, look, here are my sad eyes", "here are my surprised eyes", "here are my mad eyes", etc. This requires constant creativity and work, but slowly, Zachary was making progress! Once the purpose of "eyes" had been provided, Zachary leaped forward in this area! :o)
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