Autism is associated with a wide and complex array of neurobehavioural symptoms. Examination of the motor system offers a particularly appealing method for studying autism by providing information about this syndrome that is relatively immune to experimental influence. In this article, we considered the relationship between possible movement disturbance and symptoms of autism and introduced an experimental model that may be useful for rehabilitation and diagnostic purposes: the reach-to-grasp movement. Research is reviewed that characterizes kinematically the reach-to-grasp movement in children with autism compared with age-matched 'controls'. Unlike the age-matched children, autistic children showed differences in movement planning and execution, supporting the view that movement disturbances may play a part in the phenomenon of autism.

This paper critically reviews medical approaches to the identification and treatment of disability. The medical model locates disability within individuals. By contrast, this paper argues that disability cannot be understood outside its social context. As such, some of the assumptions about normality and difference which underpin traditional approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of disabled people are challenged. If it is accepted that disability is located not solely within the mind or body of an individual, but rather in the relationship between people with particular bodily and intellectual differences and their social environment, then greater focus may be placed on ameliorating disability through changes in social policy, culture and institutional practices.

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