L14_asd_motor

Page 1: Motor Functions in ASD

Page 2: Overview of Motor Functions in ASD

• Impairments in motor functions are common in ASD but not part of diagnostic criteria.

• Motor dysfunction includes both basic and higher-order complex motor skills.

• Although motor impairments are not unique to ASD, certain deficits may be more characteristic of this disorder.

Page 3: Significance of Motor Deficits in ASD

• Motor impairments can be among the earliest signs of ASD.

  • Notable delays in behaviors such as rolling over, holding up head, head lag, and reaching/grasping observed as early as 3-6 months.

• Motor impairments may relate to social and communication deficits in ASD.

  • Correlations exist between praxis deficits and social/communication impairments measured by ADOS.

• Development of the motor system is closely tied to language development, leading to missed social opportunities.

• Later motor coordination issues can exacerbate social difficulties.

Page 4: Common Motor Dysfunction in ASD

• Key characteristics include:

  • Delayed milestones.

  • Clumsiness, lack of coordination, motor awkwardness (not well studied).

  • Gait and postural control issues.

  • Fine and gross motor impairments, including handwriting challenges.

  • Difficulty with praxis and imitation skills.

  • Challenges in motor planning for tasks like reach-to-grasp.

Page 5: Walking in ASD

Page 6: Dyspraxia

• Defined as the inability to perform tasks in response to verbal commands, despite understanding the command and no sensory or motor deficit.

• Includes issues with imitation of actions or gestures.

• Disconnect exists between task conception and execution.

• Ideomotor Apraxia/Dyspraxia involves failure to plan movement sequences for actions.

Page 7: Dyspraxia in ASD

• Difficulties in gesture production, comprehension, and imitation.

• Imitation is essential for learning; gestures are important for communication.

• Mirror neuron system may play a role in understanding others' actions.

• Deficits in visual feedback may lead to visual-motor integration challenges.

Page 8: Goal Directed Actions

• Decreased motor planning ability affects the usage of outcomes to inform actions.

• Measurement of mylohyoid muscle activity shows different behaviors in ASD compared to typically developing children.

• Mylohyoid activity observed in ASD only when items moved towards the mouth.

Page 9: Goal Directed Actions Task

• In a reach, grasp, and place task, response times varied for typically developing children based on container size.

• Children with ASD exhibited no variation in reach times regardless of final placement container.

Page 10: Impact of Visual Distractors

• Typically developing children experienced variability in planning and execution with distractors present.

• Children with ASD showed no significant differences in motor planning or execution when distractors were introduced.

• This suggests a deficit in the integration of visual information for motor planning in ASD.

Page 11: Summary of Key Impairments

• Impairments noted in:

  • Gesturing, tool use, and imitation.

  • Motor planning for goal-directed actions.

  • Delays in achieving motor milestones.

  • Gait and postural control issues.

• Inefficient use of visual information is a common theme across these impairments.

• Underlying issue appears to relate to how visual feedback is used to inform the motor system.