Abstract
In the past decade, converging evidence has suggested that motor impairment is one of the most consistent markers, alongside sociocommunicative difficulties, for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Indeed, widespread anomalies of movement have been described in the ASD context. These motor abnormalities could have critical implications for subsequent cognitive and social development. Nevertheless, this area of development is particularly underexamined in the autism-related context, and early intervention programs commonly focus on the core symptoms of the condition. In the present work, we review and discuss the findings from recent studies that investigated the effect of interventions regarding fundamental motor skills in autistic children. Although the limited nature of the literature prevents researchers from drawing definitive conclusions, the results from the studies discussed here demonstrated potentially significant improvements in the motor abilities of autistic children after the interventions. Only a subset of the reviewed studies explored possible changes in the sociocommunicative domain after the motor skills improvements, and they had not concordant, although promising, conclusions. Overall, in consideration of the well-documented motor impairment people with the condition, the present findings highlight the importance of including motor skills training within the rehabilitation programs designed for autistic children. Furthermore, this narrative review encourages future interventional trials to consider motor skills as a possible target for reducing activity limitations and participation restrictions of autistic children.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental condition that is characterized by an impairment in social interaction and communicative skills, as well as the presence of repetitive and restricted behaviors
We aimed to provide an up-to-date overview of the findings from the studies that have used specific fundamental motor skills” (FMS) interventions in autistic children over the past 10 years
We intended to explore whether interventions that have addressed FMS included measures of autistic core characteristics and, in case, to consider the possible effect of FMS interventions on the sociocommunicative domain of autistic children
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental condition that is characterized by an impairment in social interaction and communicative skills, as well as the presence of repetitive and restricted behaviors. From the comprehensive meta-analysis of Fournier and colleagues [3] that suggested a remarkable effect size of 1.20 for motor deficits, the study of motor function in ASD has gained increasing momentum over the last decade. Motor difficulties in ASD occur in the first years of life, even preceding the social-communication deficits, and tend to increase with age, reducing the possibility of social interaction [5,6]. A number of studies suggested that motor difficulties could be one of the earliest identifiable manifestations of ASD in clinical settings [7,8,9,10,11,12]. Motor disturbances could even provide crucial information for delineating the different trajectories for typical development as well as early-onset and regressive forms of ASD that start from six months of age [13,14,15]
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