Motor Problems Key Feature in Autism, Family Study Suggests

In families that have at least one child with autism, significant motor impairments crop up in most children with the disorder and hardly any of their unaffected siblings, according to a study published 19 October in Autism.Many studies have shown motor problems in people with autism, but this is the first to investigate whether family members also have them. Motor deficits such as clumsiness, poor muscle tone and difficulty with fine and gross motor skills crop up in some 80 percent of children with the disorder, but are not part of the diagnostic criteria.Because motor problems consistently accompany autism in families, they should be considered part of the disorder, the researchers say."We know there are many ways to get to autism," says lead investigator John Constantino, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis. "What we’re saying is that it looks like many of them may be associated with motor coordination deficits, at a level that rivals the frequency of communicative or language deficits."Read more at...SFARI, November 2011.