Young children’s demand for reciprocal engagement: evidence from typically-developing and autistic preschoolers

How does mutual gaze, or eye contact, play a role in shaping young children’s notion of reciprocal engagement? Prior research shows that typically-developing children under the age of five years often negate seeing others in the absence of mutual gaze (e.g., Moll, Arellano, Guzman, Cordova, & Madrigal, 2015). Children’s negations have been interpreted to reflect a mutualistic or reciprocal notion of person-to-person relation, a ‘mutuality demand’ of sorts, i.e., “I can only see you if you also see me (and vice versa).” After around five years of age, children begin to adopt a more ‘objective’ perspective and affirm seeing others in the absence of mutual gaze. ❧ The focus of this thesis is to identify other possible conditions under which children’s mutuality demand manifests. First, little to no attention has been paid to whether young children hold a similar mutuality criterion for other modes of interaction, namely vocal communication. Much like they say they cannot see another person whose eyes are covered, will children also deny that they can hear or speak to another person whose ears or mouth area, respectively, is covered? Given the primacy of gaze, it is possible that children will only demand mutuality for gaze and no other modality. It is also possible that children will demand mutuality for any modality that allows for reciprocal engagement (i.e., gaze and vocal communication). Second, it is unknown if children with autism conceptualize persons outside of mutual gaze differently than their typically-developing peers. Given core deficits in gaze and reciprocal social interaction, it is expected that children with autism will affirm seeing others in the absence of eye contact. This work has significant implications for our understanding of the boundaries governing young children’s mutuality demand during the early formative years.