Postural Control and Interceptive Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background Increasing evidence shows common motor deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that can relate to impaired planning and control processes of the sensorimotor system. Catching is a fundamental motor skill that requires coordination between vision, posture, and arm movements. Although postural control and ball catching have been shown to be impaired in children with ASD, previous studies have not investigated how these components are integrated. Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the sensorimotor control of arm movements and postural adjustments during ball catching in children with and without ASD. Design This study employed a cross-sectional design. Methods Fifteen children with ASD (mean [SD] age = 8.8 [1.2] years; 12 boys) and 15 age- and sex-matched typically developing children participated in this study. Children were asked to catch a ball rolling down a ramp in 6 test conditions in which visual inputs and ramp direction were manipulated to provide different sensory conditions and postural demands. Results Compared with their typically developing peers, children with ASD had increased difficulties catching balls, especially those from lateral directions. They less often used visual information to plan for catching motion, demonstrated fewer and delayed anticipatory postural adjustments, and exhibited increased corrective control. Limitations The sample excluded children with intellectual disability and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders that might reduce the generalizability to the whole ASD population. Conclusions Our results suggest that motor difficulties present in children with ASD can result from compromised sensorimotor integration in planning and control of movements.

Motor Capacities in Boys with High Functioning Autism: Which Evaluations to Choose?

“…In the present work, lower scores were observed in gait and balance, dexterity, and ball skill items (Table 2 and Table 3). These observations were concordant with those obtained by others, who used either EUROFIT or PANESS or M-ABC [3,8,13,27,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45]. Indeed, Dickinson and Place [34] reported similar results from 100 children with ASD that were evaluated with EUROFIT.…”

“…Some motor impairments were well identified in the studies of children with ASD. They reported fine and gross motor coordination, muscle tone, strength, praxis, performance of repetitive movement, subtle neurological signs of overflow, dysrhythmia, and motor discontinuity [13,27,32,33,34]. The conclusions of these works were convergent and could be used to estimate the existence of motor deficits in children with ASD.…”

“…Specifically, when compared to typically developed children, children with ASD are more likely to have difficulties with balance, postural stability, gait, joint flexibility, and movement speed [6,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Some children with ASD have general dynamic coordination disorders including locomotion, jumping, and dynamic balance [13]. This coordination is essential during every physical activity that requires strength (hitting or throwing a ball, walking on a line, balancing).…”

An examination of active inference in autistic adults using immersive virtual reality.

“…Indeed, differences in sensory integration, motor coordination and skill acquisition are common in autism 2,3 , and inform a regular focus of occupational therapy 4 . Empirical studies using standardised motor assessments evidence these difficulties 2,3 , with autistic people displaying particular impairments in interception skills like catching or hitting a ball [5][6][7][8] . These differences emerge at a kinematic level 6,8,9 , for which autistic people show noisy, inflexible, and uncertain movement patterns 8,10,11 .…”

“…Empirical studies using standardised motor assessments evidence these difficulties 2,3 , with autistic people displaying particular impairments in interception skills like catching or hitting a ball [5][6][7][8] . These differences emerge at a kinematic level 6,8,9 , for which autistic people show noisy, inflexible, and uncertain movement patterns 8,10,11 . Furthermore, the degree of impairment in motor tasks correlates with an individual's socio-behavioural traits 12 and daily living competencies 1 .…”