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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