I took in DS for a speech assessment and after the woman spent literally 1 minute talking to him she asked if he has Aspergers. Simply because he was not making eye contact with her that often. He was very chatty and friendly, the eye contact just wasn't there. He DOES make eye contact with us and other people that he knows well. And he was making eye contact with her by the end of the appt. It just annoys me that people are trying to label kids with ASD based on such superficial characteristics after just talking to them for a minute. I have troubles making eye contact as well and have to force myself but I don't fit ASD criteria in any way. DS had a teacher who got right in your face with a direct stare--I thought that was just as weird as not making eye contact.
I have been there.
This was one of the reasons we kept being asked if DS was "on the spectrum" when he was having emotional problems as a preteen. It's doesn't seem that odd to me that an emotionally fragile introverted preteen doesn't initially make eye contact with an adult he doesn't know well. I kept getting frustrated that adults he didn't know well would get into his face and expect him to warm up to them immediately. Maybe there is a reason beyond autism that he is looking at the floor? DS didn't have a problem with eye contact as a preschooler and doesn't have problems now that he is older and a lot more stable.
