Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder often characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities.
Some common deficits seen in those with ASD include:
- Deficits in social and emotional reciprocity
- Deficits in non-verbal communicative behaviors
- Deficits in developing, maintaining and understanding relationships
- Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities
- Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines or ritualised patterns of verbal or non verbal behaviors
- Hyper or hypo activity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment
Age of Development: Often symptoms will be present in early development but may not become noticeable until social expectations and demands exceed the limited capacity of the child, and may even be masked by learned strategies.Motor abilities often differ significantly between children and infants with ASD compared to those without.
ASD is more common in males with a recent estimation of the ratio being 3:1. Females with ASD are, unfortunately, at a higher risk of not receiving a clinical diagnosis. The female autism phenotype is thought to play a role in females being misdiagnosed, overlooked or diagnosed later in life.
ASD and motor skills:
It has been found that fine and gross motor skills are significantly related to adaptive behaviour skills in young children with ASD. Gross motor skills being particularly predictive of navigating the skills required for activities of daily living. Due to this relationship, early intervention with a focus on fine and gross motor skill development is extremely important in the treatment and capacity building of those with ASD.
This is where physiotherapy can be a vital addition to a child’s treatment. Physiotherapy can help with the motor deficits often experienced with ASD and can help increase a child’s participation in physical activity. Physiotherapy is also beneficial in reducing the psychomotor imbalances and sensitivities that can accompany an ASD diagnosis.
Occupational therapy has been shown to help with finding new ways to navigate and complete activities of daily living and can help to improve upper limb coordination and stimulus adaptation. Occupational Therapists are masters at adapting an environment to get the most engagement out of their patients. They are also great at identifying changes that need to be made to an environment or a task to increase the success rate of the child.
Speech therapists work with developing verbal and non-verbal language and communication skills. They help with social interaction and interpretation and can help develop alternative communication strategies, increasing a child’s engagement in their surroundings and with their support network.
REFERENCES:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Hodges, H., Fealko, C. and Soares, N. (2020) ‘Autism spectrum disorder: Definition, epidemiology, causes, and clinical evaluation’, Translational Pediatrics, 9(S1). doi:10.21037/tp.2019.09.09.
Lloyd, M. MacDonald, M. Lord, C. (2011). Motor Skills of Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Autism, vol.12, issue 2, pp. 133-146