EARLY SCREENING FOR AUTISM BASED ON VISUAL ENGAGEMENT: A SCOPING REVIEW

Abstract

The diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is clinical and performed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - VTR. The heterogeneous nature of ASD, the limitations of screening and diagnostic protocols, and the need for specialized professionals hinder early assessment. Given this scenario, a scoping review was conducted to understand how visual engagement can be evaluated as a biomarker for ASD screening. The BVS and PubMed databases were consulted using the descriptors: “visual engagement AND eye-tracking AND autism OR ASD” and “assessment AND autism OR ASD AND eye-tracking OR eye engagement OR visual engagement”. Articles published between 2021 and 2025 were selected, with clinical research involving groups with an average age of six years. After double-blind peer review, 21 articles on the topic were located. The main results demonstrated that children with ASD exhibit patterns with greater visual engagement in non-social areas, more random gaze patterns, less attention to faces, a greater visual preference for objects and backgrounds, and a reduced response to shared attention cues. These results suggest potential for the use of visual engagement as a possible biomarker to develop an ASD screening tool.