Dataset Information

Longitudinal development of manual motor ability in autism spectrum disorder from childhood to mid-adulthood relates to adaptive daily living skills.

ABSTRACT: Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit motor difficulties, but it is unknown whether manual motor skills improve, plateau, or decline in ASD in the transition from childhood into adulthood. Atypical development of manual motor skills could impact the ability to learn and perform daily activities across the life span. This study examined longitudinal grip strength and finger tapping development in individuals with ASD (n = 90) compared to individuals with typical development (n = 56), ages 5 to 40 years old. We further examined manual motor performance as a possible correlate of current and future daily living skills. The group with ASD demonstrated atypical motor development, characterized by similar performance during childhood but increasingly poorer performance from adolescence into adulthood. Grip strength was correlated with current adaptive daily living skills, and Time 1 grip strength predicted daily living skills eight years into the future. These results suggest that individuals with ASD may experience increasingly more pronounced motor difficulties from adolescence into adulthood and that manual motor performance in ASD is related to adaptive daily living skills.

SUBMITTER: Travers BG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5055420 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Longitudinal development of manual motor ability in autism spectrum disorder from childhood to mid-adulthood relates to adaptive daily living skills.

Travers Brittany G BG Bigler Erin D ED Duffield Tyler C TC Prigge Molly D B MDB Froehlich Alyson L AL Lange Nicholas N Alexander Andrew L AL Lainhart Janet E JE

Developmental science 20160407 4

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit motor difficulties, but it is unknown whether manual motor skills improve, plateau, or decline in ASD in the transition from childhood into adulthood. Atypical development of manual motor skills could impact the ability to learn and perform daily activities across the life span. This study examined longitudinal grip strength and finger tapping development in individuals with ASD (n = 90) compared to individuals with typical development ...[more]

PMID: 27061223

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Project description:BackgroundMotor difficulties are common in many, but not all, autistic individuals. These difficulties can co-occur with other problems, such as delays in language, intellectual, and adaptive functioning. Biological mechanisms underpinning such difficulties are less well understood. Poor motor skills tend to be more common in individuals carrying highly penetrant rare genetic mutations. Such mechanisms may have downstream consequences of altering neurophysiological excitation-inhibition balance and lead to enhanced behavioral motor noise.MethodsThis study combined publicly available and in-house datasets of autistic (n = 156), typically-developing (TD, n = 149), and developmental coordination disorder (DCD, n = 23) children (age 3-16 years). Autism motor subtypes were identified based on patterns of motor abilities measured from the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2nd edition. Stability-based relative clustering validation was used to identify autism motor subtypes and evaluate generalization accuracy in held-out data. Autism motor subtypes were tested for differences in motor noise, operationalized as the degree of dissimilarity between repeated motor kinematic trajectories recorded during a simple reach-to-drop task.ResultsRelatively 'high' (n = 87) versus 'low' (n = 69) autism motor subtypes could be detected and which generalize with 89% accuracy in held-out data. The relatively 'low' subtype was lower in general intellectual ability and older at age of independent walking, but did not differ in age at first words or autistic traits or symptomatology. Motor noise was considerably higher in the 'low' subtype compared to 'high' (Cohen's d = 0.77) or TD children (Cohen's d = 0.85), but similar between autism 'high' and TD children (Cohen's d = 0.08). Enhanced motor noise in the 'low' subtype was also most pronounced during the feedforward phase of reaching actions.LimitationsThe sample size of this work is limited. Future work in larger samples along with independent replication is important. Motor noise was measured only on one specific motor task. Thus, a more comprehensive assessment of motor noise on many other motor tasks is needed.ConclusionsAutism can be split into at least two discrete motor subtypes that are characterized by differing levels of motor noise. This suggests that autism motor subtypes may be underpinned by different biological mechanisms.

Project description:It is well-documented that intelligence quotient (IQ) is a poor predictor of adaptive behavior scores in autism, with autistic children having lower adaptive behavior scores than would be predicted based on their IQ scores. Differences in motor skills may explain the variability in their adaptive behavior scores. The current study examined how motor skills might explain autistic individuals' low adaptive behavior scores and which individual components of IQ (i.e., verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning) and motor skills (i.e., manual dexterity, aiming and catching, and balance) may drive this effect. We examined the associations between IQ, motor skills, calibrated severity, and adaptive behavior scores in 45 autistic children and adolescents. Using a t-test, we found a significant difference (p <0.001) between full-scale IQ and adaptive behavior scores, indicating that our participants' adaptive behavior scores were lower than would be expected given their full-scale IQ. Using a linear regression, we investigated whether motor skills predicted adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents and found that motor skills scores were associated with adaptive behavior scores (p = 0.022). To further investigate these associations, we used another linear regression to examine how individual components of IQ and motor skills predicted adaptive behavior scores in autistic children and adolescents. Our results indicated that manual dexterity scores were associated with adaptive behavior scores (p = 0.036). These findings clearly illustrate the need for further understanding of autistic individuals' difficulties with adaptive behavior and the potential role of motor skill difficulties that may underlie these difficulties. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic children have lower adaptive behavior scores (e.g., daily living skills, social skills, communication) than intelligence scores (e.g., verbal and perceptual skills) along with difficulties with motor skills. Motor skills may explain the gap between adaptive behavior and intelligence. We found motor skills were associated with adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents. In particular, hand coordination was associated with adaptive behavior. We need to better understand how autistic individuals' motor skills impact their adaptive behavior to provide effective supports.

Dataset Information

Longitudinal development of manual motor ability in autism spectrum disorder from childhood to mid-adulthood relates to adaptive daily living skills.

Publications

Longitudinal development of manual motor ability in autism spectrum disorder from childhood to mid-adulthood relates to adaptive daily living skills.

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