Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/uYq04u8QMx4   Infants demonstrating unusual ways of looking at objects at 9 months of age are more likely to develop autism or autism spectrum disorder later in childhood.  Paychiatrists at UC-Davis analyzed the behaviors of a high autism risk group, 89 infants whose older siblings had from diagnoses of autism, and compared them with 58 infants at low risk as their siblings showed age-typical developmental parameters.  Observations were made at 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, and 36 months of age.   The result: children who engaged in atypical visual inspection of objects at 9 months were more likely to be diagnosed with autism at 3 years of age.  These atypical visual behaviors included: looking out of the corners of the eyes, holding an object close to the face, examining the object with one eye closed, and staring continuously at an object for more than 10 seconds.   This observation supports the theory that infants with autistic tendencies over-focus on objects due to their relative disint