The ability of autistic children to recognize faces in more naturalistic settings

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future-work section and stated challenges of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 1978 and 2026, spanning 4 journals. Those papers have been cited 805 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 5 representative gaps

• A Multimodal Investigation of Flexibility and Socialization in Autistic Children With and Without ADHD (2026) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi

  Future studies should examine the longitudinal associations between flexibility and socialization skills in autistic children. Future studies should investigate the effectiveness of interventions targeting flexibility in autistic children with and without ADHD. Future studies should examine the neural mechanisms underlying flexibility difficulties in autistic children.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: future studies examine longitudinal associations between flexibility socialization
• Emotion- and Region-Specific Gaze Differences in Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (2026) · Psychiatry Investigation · doi

  One challenge is the complexity of autism spectrum disorder and its impact on social communication and emotional face processing. Another challenge is the lack of understanding of the familial susceptibility to ASD. The study also faces the challenge of developing effective interventions aimed at improving social communication skills in individuals with ASD.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: one challenge complexity autism spectrum disorder impact social
• THE AUTISTIC CHILD'S APPRAISAL OF EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION (1986) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · cited 443× · doi

  Future research should aim to develop interventions aimed at improving the social skills of autistic children. Future research should investigate the ability of autistic children to recognize emotions from facial expressions and contexts in more natural social situations. Future research should aim to understand the underlying mechanisms of the social disability of autistic children.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: future research aim develop interventions aimed improving social
• Testing the relationships between facial emotion recognition, levels of Autistic traits, and eye gaze patterns (2026) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi

  Investigating the relationship between Autistic traits and emotion recognition in different contexts, - Examining the neural mechanisms underlying emotion recognition difficulties in individuals with Autistic traits, - Developing interventions to improve emotion recognition in individuals with Autistic traits

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: investigating relationship between autistic traits emotion recognition different
• RECOGNITION OF FACES: AN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF AUTISM (1978) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · cited 362× · doi

  Future studies should examine the ability of autistic children to recognize faces in more naturalistic settings. Future studies should investigate the neural basis of facial recognition in autistic children. Future studies should develop interventions to improve social communication in autistic children.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 4/5
  Keywords: future studies examine ability autistic children recognize faces

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