Young Autistic Children Spontaneously Take Others' Visual Perspectives

Spontaneous visual perspective-taking is fundamental to real-world social interactions but remains understudied in young autistic children, partly due to methodological limitations. The traditional dot-perspective task imposes substantial cognitive demands, limiting its suitability for developmental populations. The present study adapted a simplified paradigm to address this issue. Study 1 investigated whether the adapted task reliably elicits interference effects and is suitable for use in preschool children (N = 59). Study 2 then compared 34 autistic and 29 age- and IQ-matched non-autistic children. Results showed reliable altercentric and egocentric interference in both groups, with autistic children exhibiting larger interference effects than non-autistic children. These effects persisted even in a self-perspective-first design that minimized potential carryover from prior other-perspective trials. Together, these findings indicate that young autistic children spontaneously process others' visual perspectives, alongside increased difficulty in suppressing their own perspective, suggesting that autistic children may exhibit preserved or even heightened sensitivity to social information rather than reduced social attentional engagement.