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Comprehensive Guide to Autism pp 503–517Cite as

Referential Gaze and Word Mapping in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

Individuals with ASD reportedly have difficulty associating novel words with novel objects by using the speaker’s gaze as a guide. To map words onto objects via a speaker’s gaze, it is important to attend to the speaker’s face, recognize his/her gaze, follow the gaze, and interpret the gaze as referential. Studies to date have suggested that individuals with ASD have atypical social functioning in some situations, while some functions are intact in other situations. For example, individuals with ASD do not spontaneously follow another’s gaze, but they do if they are instructed to do so or after they experience a training phase. Studies to date have suggested that some children with ASD have difficulty in word mapping via the speaker’s gaze because they pay less attention to the speaker’s face, and other children with ASD have difficulty because they do not treat the other’s gaze as referential.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Hironori Akechi

  2. Division of Information System Design, Tokyo Denki University, Ishizaka, Hatoyama-machi, Hiki-gun, Saitama, Japan

    Hironori Akechi & Harumi Kobayashi

Authors
  1. Hironori Akechi
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  2. Harumi Kobayashi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hironori Akechi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Westminster, Faculty of Science & Technology, London, United Kingdom

    Vinood B. Patel

  2. Nutritional Sciences Division and Genomics Centre, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

    Victor R. Preedy

  3. Faculty of Society and Health, Buckinghamshire New University, Middlesex, United Kingdom

    Colin R. Martin

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Akechi, H., Kobayashi, H. (2014). Referential Gaze and Word Mapping in Autism Spectrum Disorders. In: Patel, V., Preedy, V., Martin, C. (eds) Comprehensive Guide to Autism. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4788-7_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4788-7_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4787-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4788-7

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science

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