Effects of age and communication level on eye contact in fragile X males and non‐fragile X autistic males

Dyadic social gaze and eye contact were examined in fragile X [fra(X)] males and in non‐fra(X) autistic males as a function of age and level of communicative ability. Lag sequential analysis showed that responsive eye contact was highly correlated with age and communicative ability in non‐fra(X) autistic males but not in fra(X) males. Older, more communicative non‐fra(X) autistic males exhibited more responsive eye contact than their fra(X) cohorts. Implications of these observations for theory and intervention are discussed.