Abstract
Amongst other behavioral deficits, children afflicted with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) present an array of motor skill impairments. These deficits include problems the planning and performance of goal-directed behaviors. Aspects of motor planning ability in ASD-diagnosed children (aged 5-13 years) through application of a method consisting of fine and gross motor tasks and postural components through altering sensory input have been studied. It has been observed that ASD children expressed greater variability in hand selection during the “dial-turning task” and a tendency to plan movements that were not in accordance with ‘end-state comfort’. These children displayed a reduced ability to imitate movements correctly, presented lower scores for both the drawing and stickler tasks, and required longer time to ‘bead the bracelet’ than the comparison control group. The notion of end-state comfort refers to planning movements that allow individuals to attain comfort at task completion despite an initial phase of nocomfort/ discomfort. In children presenting normal development, a near completion of end-state performance is reached by 10 years-of-age.
Highlights
Children afflicted with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) present an array of motor skill impairments [1,2,3]
Simermeyer and Ketcham (2015) have studied aspects of motor planning ability in ASD-diagnosed children through application of a method consisting of fine and gross motor tasks and postural components through altering sensory input [6]. They observed that ASD children expressed greater variability in hand selection during the “dial-turning task” and a tendency to plan movements that were not in accordance with ‘end-state comfort’
The purpose of this treatise is to examine the notion of physical exercise as intervention to facilitate a positive developmental trajectory, as has been observed both under normal conditions and those associated with developmental disturbance, e.g. ADHD [9,10,11,12,13,14]
Summary
Children afflicted with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) present an array of motor skill impairments [1,2,3]. These children displayed a reduced ability to imitate movements correctly, presented lower scores for both the drawing and stickler tasks, and required longer time to ‘bead the bracelet’ than the comparison control group.
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