Motor proficiency and emotional/behavioural disturbance in autism and Asperger's disorder: another piece of the neurological puzzle?
Poor ball skills and balance in kids with ASD signal higher risk for emotional blow-ups and language delays.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Papadopoulos et al. (2012) looked at kids with autism and Asperger’s. They tested how well the kids caught, threw, and balanced.
The team also asked parents about tantrums, anxiety, and talking skills. They wanted to see if poor motor scores lined up with mood and language trouble.
What they found
Kids who could not catch or stand on one foot also had more meltdowns and fewer words.
The link was strongest for ball games and balance. Fine-motor crafts like cutting did not predict behavior problems.
How this fits with other research
Pan et al. (2024) extends this picture. They showed the same motor delays track tightly with executive-function slips like poor impulse control.
Mancini et al. (2019) explain why. Their review found that clumsy kids get left out of playground games. The social gap then feeds anxiety, not the clumsy moves themselves.
Green et al. (2011) add a time warning. Boys who failed ball tests at age 7 were less active at age 12. Early motor checks can flag later health and mood risk.
Why it matters
When a child with ASD trips or drops the ball, look deeper. Quick screeners like the BOT-2 ball-skills subset plus a parent mood checklist take five minutes. Catching both issues early lets you write goals that blend PE, social stories, and emotion regulation in one plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The relationship of motor proficiency with emotional/behavioural disturbance, autistic symptoms and communication disturbance was investigated in children diagnosed with autism and Asperger's disorder (AD). The Movement Assessment Battery for Children was used as a measure of motor impairment, and the Developmental Behavioural Checklist was used as a measure of emotional/behavioural disturbance in the following groups: AD (n = 22), high functioning autism (HFA) (n = 23), LFA (n = 8) and typically developing children (n = 20). The HFA group had more difficulty with motor items, such as ball skills and balance, than did the AD group. There were significant positive correlations between impairments in motor proficiency (in particular ball skills and balance) and emotional/behavioural disturbance, autistic symptoms and communication disturbance. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that there are qualitative and quantitative differences in the motor profile between autism and AD. In addition, the association between motor proficiency impairment and emotional/behavioural disturbance in autism and AD emphasizes the importance for screening of co-occurring emotional/behavioural symptoms in individuals with motor difficulties. These findings have implications for the potential use of adjunct motor measures in the diagnosis and definition of autism spectrum disorders.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2012 · doi:10.1177/1362361311418692