Social Interaction and Autism

Causes

There are various theories as to why autistic people have impaired social skills. Some people think poor social skills may be caused by

• a failure of affective processing
• a failure to develop a “theory of mind”, which prevents the individual from understanding what other people are thinking or feeling
• weakness or absence of the social gaze response
• memory dysfunction, such as deficits in memory for faces and common social scenes, which prevent the individual from remembering other people or events
• other problems, such as sensory distractions, which prevent an individual from concentrating on social issues

Updated

16 Jun 2022