Increasing audiovisual speech integration in autism through enhanced attention to mouth.

Researchers studied how autistic children process speech when watching someone talk. They found that when autistic children looked more at the speaker's mouth (rather than their eyes), they got better at understanding speech. The researchers tested this by blurring the speaker's eyes or telling children to look at the mouth. This helped autistic children improve their ability to match what they heard with what they saw when someone was speaking.

This study investigated whether increasing attention to mouth movements could improve audiovisual speech integration in autistic children aged 4-8 years using the McGurk effect paradigm. Two experiments manipulated visual attention through eye-blurring and attention cueing while tracking eye movements. Results showed that both blurring speakers' eyes and cueing attention to the mouth increased mouth-looking time and improved audiovisual speech integration in autistic children. Non-autistic children showed increased mouth-looking with both manipulations but no improvement in audiovisual speech integration.

These findings suggest that directing attention to mouth movements can enhance speech processing abilities in autistic children, potentially informing therapeutic interventions targeting communication skills.

Findings suggest attention-training interventions focusing on mouth movements could improve speech processing in autistic children. Visual attention strategies may be incorporated into speech therapy approaches. Results support targeting visual attention patterns as part of communication interventions for autism.

Sample size not reported. Study limited to laboratory-based McGurk effect paradigm which may not reflect real-world speech processing. Short-term experimental manipulations may not indicate sustained improvements. Age range restricted to 4-8 years limits generalizability to other developmental stages.

Autistic children (AC) show less audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task, which correlates with their reduced mouth-looking time. The present study examined whether AC's less audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task could be increased by increasing their mouth-looking time. We recruited 4- to 8-year-old AC and nonautistic children (NAC). In two experiments, we manipulated children's mouth-looking time, measured their audiovisual speech integration by employing the McGurk effect paradigm, and tracked their eye movements.

In Experiment 1, we blurred the eyes in McGurk stimuli and compared children's performances in blurred-eyes and clear-eyes conditions. In Experiment 2, we cued children's attention to either the mouth or eyes of McGurk stimuli or asked them to view the McGurk stimuli freely. We found that both blurring the speaker's eyes and cuing to the speaker's mouth increased mouth-looking time and increased audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task in AC. In addition, we found that blurring the speaker's eyes and cuing to the speaker's mouth also increased mouth-looking time in NAC, but neither blurring the speaker's eyes nor cuing to the speaker's mouth increased their audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task.

Our findings suggest that audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task in AC could be increased by increasing their attention to the mouth. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of relations between face attention and audiovisual speech integration, and provide insights for the development of professional supports to increase audiovisual speech integration in AC. HIGHLIGHTS: The present study examined whether audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task in AC could be increased by increasing their attention to the speaker's mouth. Blurring the speaker's eyes increased mouth-looking time and audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task in AC.

Cuing to the speaker's mouth also increased mouth-looking time and audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task in AC. Audiovisual speech integration in the McGurk task in AC could be increased by increasing their attention to the speaker's mouth.