“The eyes are the windows of the soul”.  That is how the saying goes, when looking eye to eye, but, how about in the case of cross-eyed babies?  Study shows that autism is detected as early as the first month through eye contact.

Certain races produce autistic babies and there is no need of eye detection.  It is common among them because autism runs in their blood – a family of autistics.  Researchers of the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta studied 2 groups of autism babies and the result came out that 51 babies aging 0-3 months were considered “high risks” for developing an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) because they have siblings with autism, while the other 51 were “low risks” for the absence of first, second and third degree relatives with ASD.

Of course, eye contact is a most method of detecting autism, however, young infants as they are, are susceptible to distractions thereby making them much more aware of other more striking things around them. Mothers or caregiver usually utter words aloud, hold something to show their babies to make them familiar with objects.  In cases where these people approach or call the attention of their babies, infants will be attracted to them.  But once words are uttered, the attraction or attention is diverted from the eyes to the lips.

Sounds are more effective to these infants than the eyes of mothers or caregivers, so the voice they hear enable them to recognize the speakers easily.  As a proof, they immediately follow how to smile and utter syllables not from the eyes but from the lips.

Considering eye contact as a method of detecting autism, researchers reveal that a decline in eye fixation rather than outright absence is a sign that there is a promising sign that medical intervention would be applied the earliest possible time.

Autism has been the object of studies at Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta.  Eye contact is their primary detection method.  However, in finding out the cases of 51 “high risk” infants, they found out that they belong to families with autistic blood, while the other 51 don’t have any first, second or third degree relatives with ASD.

Reference: The Chart CNN.com

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net