A multimethod approach to assessing motor skills in boys and girls with autism spectrum disorder.
Girls with autism show unique motor anticipation deficits not seen in boys—include sex-specific motor checks in your assessments.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Carollo et al. (2021) watched boys and girls with autism play catch and hop.
They used motion-capture cameras and standard motor tests.
Typical peers did the same tasks for comparison.
What they found
Kids with autism scored lower on every motor skill.
Only the girls showed odd motor anticipation.
They moved too early or too late when catching a ball.
How this fits with other research
De Francesco et al. (2023) used the same tools and could tell autism from ADHD with 73-87% accuracy.
Their work extends this paper by adding an ADHD group and showing the battery can classify, not just describe.
Spackman et al. (2022) found no sex bias in ADOS-2 social items.
That looks like a clash, but Emily checked social words while Alessandro checked motor timing.
Different domains, different patterns—no real contradiction.
Sutera et al. (2007) showed early motor skills predict who loses the autism label.
Together these studies say: watch motor skills early, watch them by sex, and keep the tool box broad.
Why it matters
If you test motor skills, split your data by sex.
A girl who can talk well might still stumble on timed motor tasks.
Add a simple catch game to your assessment kit.
It takes five minutes and can flag girls who need extra motor support.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Motor peculiarities are often reported in children with autism spectrum disorder and may predict subsequent adaptive functioning and quality of life. Although the sex bias in the prevalence of the disorder is well documented, little is known about differences in motor profile in males and females with autism spectrum disorder. Our goal was to study differences in motor functioning of boys and girls with autism spectrum disorder aged 3-11 years compared with typically developing children. Their motor performances were evaluated using a multimethod approach, including standardized motor tests, caregiver reports, and a detailed motion capture analysis of a simple reach-to-drop movement. We found that, irrespective of sex, children with autism spectrum disorder had worse scores than typically developing children on standardized tests and on caregiver reports. Interestingly, girls with autism spectrum disorder, but not boys, presented altered motor anticipation in reach-to-drop. Our findings emphasize the need for more sex-specific assessment of motor function in autism spectrum disorder.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/1362361321995634