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The difficulties that children with autism have in showing objects to other people may emerge from earlier problems with simple face-to-face interaction, according to new research.

Until recently many researchers believed that these difficulties that children with autism experience was due to the child’s lack of awareness that people’s reactions were directed towards objects and events in the world around them, says Dr Susan Leekham, who led the two-year study.

But Leekham, from the department of psychology at the University of Durham, said: “These findings indicate that the problems may start even earlier in development than previously recognised.”

The Economic and Social Research Council-sponsored research found that children in the study who did no pointing or showing objects to an adult were those most impaired in face-to-face interaction.

“This finding has implications for early intervention. Many parents are aware of difficulties long before a diagnosis of autism is made,” Leekham added. “By gaining greater understanding of these very early problems we hope that ways can be found to target them before other difficulties emerge.”