Motor Problems in Autism Move into Research Focus

Infant research dating back to the 1960s has shown that motor skills, including reaching, grasping objects, crawling and walking, help infants learn basic social and communicative behaviors.Puzzlingly, motor impairments in autism historically have been neglected, at least in part because they're not part of the diagnostic criteria for the disorder. In the past year, however, studies of infants who have a higher-than-normal risk of developing the disorder have brought this topic to the forefront.This work, some of which is unpublished, suggests that children with autism have a range of motor issues — such as head lag, floppy arms and difficulty sitting up — beginning in the first few months of life.These early motor difficulties could make it difficult for babies to focus their eyes on objects, and, in turn, could hinder reaching movements. "And that makes it harder to get objects and share them with people. So it all kind of cascades," says Jana Iverson, associate professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work has shown, for example, that children with language impairments have poor motor skills.Read more at...SFARI, November 2011.