The study by Dawson et al. (1994) compared the ability of children with autism, Down syndrome, and typically developing children to visually orient to social and nonsocial stimuli and to share attention. Children with autism were found to frequently fail to orient to all stimuli, with a more pronounced failure for social stimuli. They also took longer to orient to social stimuli compared to the other groups. Additionally, children with autism exhibited impairments in shared attention, which was positively correlated with their ability to orient to social stimuli but not to nonsocial stimuli. The findings suggest that social orienting impairments may contribute to the difficulties in shared attention observed in autism. The study used a naturalistic approach to assess social attention in young children with autism, highlighting the importance of active engagement with social stimuli for the development of social skills.The study by Dawson et al. (1994) compared the ability of children with autism, Down syndrome, and typically developing children to visually orient to social and nonsocial stimuli and to share attention. Children with autism were found to frequently fail to orient to all stimuli, with a more pronounced failure for social stimuli. They also took longer to orient to social stimuli compared to the other groups. Additionally, children with autism exhibited impairments in shared attention, which was positively correlated with their ability to orient to social stimuli but not to nonsocial stimuli. The findings suggest that social orienting impairments may contribute to the difficulties in shared attention observed in autism. The study used a naturalistic approach to assess social attention in young children with autism, highlighting the importance of active engagement with social stimuli for the development of social skills.