Is it possible to have aspergers with good eye contact???

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Hi all, am new here. My 6 year old is in the process of being diagnosed with ADHD. I believe he has aspergers but the pshyc says no because his eye contact is good. Does anyone else have experience with themselves or their children who have aspergers but with good eye contact?

I think so. I have good eye contact and when I went to my GP about it, she said that she didn't think I had autism because I made eye contact. For some reason, I had trouble with eye contact between the ages of six and nine. I relearned it when I was in grade 4 and it didn't actually take that long for me to relearn it.

I have PDD-NOS, not Asperger's though and I don't know about Asperger's, but I think it's possible. Not sure though.

Yes it is completely possible. If the clinician has decided that good eye contact alone decides whether or not he has AS, then the clinician does not have sufficient knowledge of AS to diagnose it and is not adhering to diagnostic criteria.

The section of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria concerning eye contact reads as such



So you see, of A,B,C and D the child only needs to exhibit two of them, and of A, which cites an impairment of eye to eye gaze, that is only given as an example of a qualitative impairment in social interaction. It is not a required criteria itself.

My daughter has good eye contact with her father and I and a few close family members but not with others. It is basically non existent with strangers, when she's nervous or anxious or with 'aggressive' teachers.

If it is consistent, natural eye contact with anyone she talks to, there may be a different dx in the future. Lack of eye contact is one of the primary dxing behaviors in autism.

There are definitely AS adults that work out their eye contact issues, but this is the first time I've heard of an AS child that didn't have the problem.

If she displays most of the other traits, I think it'd be a safe bet she has AS. But keep in mind, I'm not a doctor. If your child's current doctor doubts she has AS, I'd at least take your child to 2-3 more, to be certain.

To me, having good eye contact with some people but not others seems to be a sign of social anxiety.

This is how social anxiety manifests itself in NT's and is why some people make the assumption that everyone with autism is shy after hearing the symptoms.

I am NT and experience what draelynn mentioned with her daughter. When I am feeling secure, I make great eye contact with anyone without even thinking about it. However, when I am feeling anxious or insecure, I have to force myself to look them in the eye.

Some symptoms of ADHD are similar to that of autism. I'm no doctor, but to me that sounds like a correct decision.

Apparently I had "good eye contact" in infancy, but by second grade (my first memories of interaction with other human beings), I was no longer using eye contact.

I am pretty sure I "lost" my eye contact when I picked up speech, and even more so when I started learning conversational reciprocity. I can only assume that I could not sustain both simultaneously, and so dropped the one that gave me less information--a conservation of mental resources, if you will.

I can fake eye contact pretty well now, and generally keep myself turned toward the person I am talking to so that they can read my face and body movements properly (or at least, what there is to read, because I am either twitchy or not too expressive, depending on my mood.)

A marked impairment of eye-to-eye gaze can include overly intense eye contact that makes people uncomfortable.

Ain't it grand when your problem is only a problem because someone else has a problem with it? I would think if others had more self confidence they would not have to read negatives into everything... But then again I do have narcissistic tendencies

My daughter (who has autism, not Aspergers) has extremely good eye contact. It can get pretty intense at times. This actually delayed her diagnosis because clinicians were so sure that autism would have made such intense eye contact (with them, absolute strangers) intolerable or even impossible. So she was "developmentally delayed" for quite some time until her speech started to really come in (speech delay). Then they decided that even with strong eye contact with pretty much anybody, her speech style was undeniably autistic because of echolalia, reversed pronouns, and repeated questions asking for clarification of what people meant by certain facial expressions or phrases. ("Why did he put his eyebrows down?")

So yes. It's quite possible to be autistic and have good eye contact. It's not the norm, apparently, but it's possible.

D'oh! I wish somebody would tell more clinicians that.

Me too! They love to decide things based on what they see (in my experience). When I developed a sense of comfort with a therapist, the eye contact thing wasn't a problem in that setting, but if I ran into them at the store, it felt really weird and I couldn't look at them.

Then there was the therapist that wanted to be "friends" and have lunch, go for walks, etc, felt like I had really found yet another planet! I knew it was something out of bounds, yet I trusted her with so much intimate stuff, so very confused and uncomfortable, but as usual, just figured it was my problem.
I think we all have to know things about ourselves, and if lucky, find a professional that concurs, but mostly they are just another group to often doesn't "get" the issues, no matter how advanced their education or experience. Like describing a color to someone who has been blind since birth.

My eye contact varies from absolutely none to being "starey," as one clinician called it. There seems to be no in between. To answer your question though, yes, it's entirely possible to have ASD and good eye contact.

LOL - my daughter is definitely not shy and she is definitely an Aspie. The way she makes eye contact isn't typical. The people she loves and is interested in get her eye contact. Other people just don't interest her enough. Her eye contact is all about her personal level of interest. If she is nervous or unsure in any way she is definitely uninterested in talking to you. It's a definite distinction.

I personally have really poor eye contact. I rarely even look in the direction of people's faces! HOWEVER one of the residents in my home has got intense eye contact. He gets right into people's faces when he talks to them. So to answer the question, no, lack of eye contact is not a 100% need for a diagnosis.

My eye contact has gotten good. I love looking at people how they look and I look at their faces and I try and remember to look at their faces when they speak to me or when I speak to them. I still find it hard sometimes.

With autism, either we have it too much or too little. Plus lot of us learn to look at faces than at eyes so people think we are doing eye contact. But to me you can still see their eyes if you look at their faces so eye contact.

As Chronos wrote, lack of eye contact is one possible trait of AS, but not everyone has this particular trait and it is not necessary for making a diagnosis. This doctor should re-read the diagnostic criteria.