BackgroundAtypical patterns of social engagement and joint attention behaviors are diagnostic criteria for people with autism spectrum disorder. Experimental tasks using eye‐tracking methodologies have, however, shown inconsistent results. The development of tasks with greater ecological validity and relevance for developmentally appropriate social milestones has been identified as important for the field.MethodsWe developed a novel, dynamic eye‐tracking task emulating a shared book reading (SBR) scenario. Four SBR videos of an adult reader engaging with the viewer while reading a children's picture book and including sequenced bids for joint attention were developed. Participants included 90 children (N = 56 autistic children, N = 34 neurotypical children; aged 3–12). Social attention was also measured in a live free play task between participants and an experimenter.ResultsCompared to neurotypical children, autistic children displayed reduced attention to socially salient stimuli including the reader's face and picture book across SBR videos and during joint attention bids specifically. In contrast, they showed increased attention to nonsalient background stimuli compared to their neurotypical peers. These attention patterns in autistic children were associated with reduced verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills and increased symptoms associated with autism. Interestingly, positive correlations in the frequency of eye gaze between SBR and free play suggested a potential predictive value for social attention in live social interactions.ConclusionsFindings highlight the utility of SBR eye‐tracking tasks in understanding underlying divergences in social engagement and joint attention between autistic and neurotypical children. This commonly practiced early childhood activity may provide insights into the relationship between social engagement and learning to reveal how such attentional patterns might influence broader developmental and educational outcomes.

中文翻译：

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自闭症儿童共享读书期间的社交和共同关注：社交发展的潜在标志

背景非典型的社会参与和共同注意行为模式是自闭症谱系障碍患者的诊断标准。然而，使用眼球追踪方法的实验任务显示出不一致的结果。开发具有更大生态有效性和与发展适当的社会里程碑相关的任务已被认为对该领域很重要。方法我们开发了一种新颖的动态眼动追踪任务，模拟共享读书（SBR）场景。制作了四个 SBR 视频，其中成人读者在阅读儿童图画书时与观众互动，并包括按顺序进行共同关注。参加者包括90名儿童（氮= 56 名自闭症儿童，氮= 34 名神经正常儿童； 3-12 岁）。社会注意力也在参与者和实验者之间的实时自由游戏任务中进行了测量。结果与神经正常儿童相比，自闭症儿童在 SBR 视频中以及特别是在联合注意力竞价期间对社交显着刺激（包括读者的脸部和图画书）的注意力减少。相比之下，与神经正常的同龄人相比，他们对不显着的背景刺激表现出更多的关注。自闭症儿童的这些注意力模式与言语和非言语认知技能的下降以及自闭症相关症状的增加有关。有趣的是，SBR 和自由游戏之间的目光注视频率呈正相关，这表明对实时社交互动中的社会注意力具有潜在的预测价值。结论研究结果强调了 SBR 眼动追踪任务在理解自闭症患者社交参与和共同注意力方面的潜在差异方面的效用。和神经质的孩子。这种常见的幼儿活动可以提供对社会参与和学习之间关系的见解，以揭示这种注意力模式如何影响更广泛的发展和教育成果。