Samsung has a new app, called Look at Me, which is purported to help children with autism make eye contact with others. It has released a video (partially in Korean with English subtitles) showing how the app works and with testimonials by experts as to its efficacy:
Great, right? Totally, at least in theory. I think that smartphones and tablets have tremendous potential for helping kids work on problem areas, and I welcome this advance. I also applaud Samsung's donation of 200 Galaxy tablets to Autism Speaks Canada with this app loaded onto it so that kids with autism can try it out. My only issue is in its main efficacy claim, that "60% of the children tested showed improvement in making eye contact." If you watch the video closely, you'll see in tiny type "*Results are based on parents' survey" (emphasis mine). UH-OH! This is not a scientific measure, so we don't actually know if the intervention is effective. Why? Parents may interpret "improvement" differently. Plus, we don't know if there is a placebo effect at work -- parents are invested in the child's improvement, and are more likely to say that they see improvement because they've put in the time every day over eight weeks using the program. I'd want to see some better-defined objective measures for improvement before I'd believe that this app works for its intended purpose. (Which, incidentally, I hope it does.)
The other problem -- so typical of the way that autism is talked about that we barely even notice -- is that 'success' is also framed in terms of the mother's feelings. Before using the app, the mom says "I feel like I'm a complete stranger to him", and we infer that this is due, at least in part, to her son's lack of eye contact. At the end of the video, the mom says "These days, I feel like he's changed for the better... I feel that he looks at me as a mother." Now, I do not mean to discount the mother's feelings in any way. But what's missing from this account is how the child feels. People with autism have told me that eye contact can feel painful, and that they are able to attend to a conversation and engage in it while looking down or away. In other words, eye contact isn't the same thing as social engagement, though that is how neurotypicals often interpret it. I think we need to keep our figurative eyes on the real goal here -- social engagement -- while being aware of the fact that we may have different feelings about and interpretations of behaviors associated with such engagement. So, yes, it's important that the mom 'feels' that her child looks at her as a mother due to increased eye contact, as this will likely increase her own bids for engagement. But it's also possible that the child has always seen her as a mother and loved her as one, whether or not he is able to make eye contact with her. (h/t Filip Lewandowski)
The other problem -- so typical of the way that autism is talked about that we barely even notice -- is that 'success' is also framed in terms of the mother's feelings. Before using the app, the mom says "I feel like I'm a complete stranger to him", and we infer that this is due, at least in part, to her son's lack of eye contact. At the end of the video, the mom says "These days, I feel like he's changed for the better... I feel that he looks at me as a mother." Now, I do not mean to discount the mother's feelings in any way. But what's missing from this account is how the child feels. People with autism have told me that eye contact can feel painful, and that they are able to attend to a conversation and engage in it while looking down or away. In other words, eye contact isn't the same thing as social engagement, though that is how neurotypicals often interpret it. I think we need to keep our figurative eyes on the real goal here -- social engagement -- while being aware of the fact that we may have different feelings about and interpretations of behaviors associated with such engagement. So, yes, it's important that the mom 'feels' that her child looks at her as a mother due to increased eye contact, as this will likely increase her own bids for engagement. But it's also possible that the child has always seen her as a mother and loved her as one, whether or not he is able to make eye contact with her. (h/t Filip Lewandowski)
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