Motor performance, praxis, and social skills in autism spectrum disorder and developmental coordination disorder.
Emily Kilroy, Priscilla Ring, Anusha Hossain and 7 others
PMID 35785418WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism and developmental coordination disorder had lower motor and praxis scores than typical peers.
Autism was worse than developmental coordination disorder on gesture to command, meaningful imitation, and tool use, and theory of mind was lower only in autism.
Key findings
01The autism group had significantly weaker theory of mind than both the typical development and developmental coordination disorder groups.
02The developmental coordination disorder group had elevated autism-symptom social communication scores compared with typical development, and 36% had total Social Responsiveness Scale scores in the mild or moderate range.
03The autism group performed worse than the developmental coordination disorder group on gesture to command, meaningful imitation, and tool use, and the difference remained after motor performance was controlled.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The motor and social analyses were secondary analyses of data collected for a brain imaging study, not the primary outcome. The MABC-2 was part of group selection, so motor score comparisons between autism and developmental coordination disorder are constrained. The sample was relatively small and required average IQ scores. This limits generalizability. Some social measures relied on self or parent report, and the praxis analysis did not examine error types. The study compared groups at one time, so it cannot show whether motor or praxis problems cause social difficulties.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflict-of-interest declaration. The publication types list research support from NIH, extramural.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use motor performance scores alone to separate autism from developmental coordination disorder. The autism and developmental coordination disorder groups had similar MABC-2 scores, and the developmental coordination disorder group was selected for low MABC-2 scores.