Improving Autistic Social Skills

Most kids you see with asperger or high functioning autism usually have issues with things like eye contact, social interactions, trust, and paying attention. These difficulties where temporarily relieved by inhaling oxytocin. Participants in Elissar Andari's experiment improved in their difficulties. Andari gave the oxytocin in a nose spray form. Thirteen autistics and 13 typical children were given saline or oxytocin. No one knew which got which until the end of the experiment. She tested their improvements by using an online game and images. In the game most people return the ball to the person who passed it to them, but autistics pass equally. Those who inhaled the oxytocin engaged with the good players and shunned the bad. It helped the autistic children interpret social cues. In the images it was used to keep track of eye movement. Autistic children looked at them deliberately and relaxed with the oxytocin.

I think this oxytocin would really improve the level of hormones in autistic children. It will help them in trusting people and with their social interactions with them. These children will also feel comfortable and not be so unrelaxed. The online games and images really show their improvement. You can even see it in the chart. Kids go from not being able to look at themselves to relaxing and playing the game almost like typical children.

"Phenomena:." Phenomena Can a Sniff of Oxytocin Improve the Social Skills of Autistic People Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.