Lack of Social Interaction No Engagement

Video Summary

The following clip shows Christian in his classroom at school. Though he is at the train table with his teacher, Christian is only minimally engaged in the actiivity and quickly loses interest, removing himself from the group. Throughout the interaction, Christian rarely vocalizes or looks at others and his facial expression is flat, making it unclear if he enjoys playing with the trains. Further, he makes no effort to keep the interaction going. He plays next to others, rather than with them and then walks away from the social scene entirely. In contrast, Christian's classmate frequently looks back and forth to her teacher's face, watches and imitates her teacher's actions, and smiles and shares her enjoyment by asking the teacher to play again. This interest in social interaction, social reciprocity and use of social skills (eye contact, requesting, facial expression, sharing of enjoyment) are all lacking in Christian, consistent with his autism spectrum diagnosis.