Motor competency and social communication skills in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.
Preschoolers with ASD plus ID show unique aiming and catching deficits that mirror their social-communication struggles.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Craig et al. (2018) watched preschoolers catch and throw.
They compared three groups: autism plus ID, ID alone, and typically developing kids.
All children were between three and five years old.
Teachers scored aiming and catching with a simple motor test.
The team also rated each child’s social-communication skills.
What they found
Kids with both autism and ID scored lowest on aiming and catching.
The ID-only group did better, and typical kids did best.
Within the ASD+ID group, lower motor scores went hand in hand with more social-communication trouble.
The link was specific; poor ball skills flagged autism-related issues, not just low IQ.
How this fits with other research
Pan et al. (2009) saw the same motor gap in older kids and added ADHD to the mix.
They found autism creates bigger movement problems than ADHD, so the issue is autism-specific, not general developmental delay.
Hilton et al. (2010) showed these delays last: nine-year-olds with ASD moved like typical five-year-olds.
Francesco’s preschool data prove the lag starts even earlier, before kindergarten.
Oliveira et al. (2023) tied the same skills to daily life.
They showed weak object control predicts less participation at home, school, and in the community.
Together the papers form a timeline: early ball-skill deficits turn into real-world exclusion years later.
Why it matters
You already screen language and play in intakes. Add a two-minute aiming and catching game.
Low scores warn you the child may also struggle with joint attention, peer entry, and classroom games.
Build motor goals into the behavior plan: practice tossing beanbags while waiting for a turn, or catch while answering social questions.
Improving visuomotor integration can give you a second pathway to boost social communication.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: This study aimed to investigate the association between motor competency and social communication in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared with children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and typically developing (TD) children. Motor competency, ASD symptoms, and nonverbal Intelligent Quotient (IQ) were investigated through the following tests: Movement Assessment Battery for Children, second edition (MABC-2), Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC) and Leiter International Performances Scale Revised (Leiter-R). The ASD + ID and ID groups had lower MABC-2-manual dexterity mean scores, MABC-2-aiming and catching mean scores, MABC-2-static and dynamic balance mean scores and MABC-2-TTS compared with the TD group (P < 0.05). In addition, the ASD + ID group had lower MABC-2-aiming and catching mean scores compared with the ID group. In the ASD + ID group, we found a significant negative correlation (P < 0.001) between MABC-2-aiming and catching scores with SCQ scores, nonverbal IQ and ACSF:SC levels. Our findings provide new insight into the common neuropsychological mechanisms underlying social communication and motor deficits in ASD. Multiple deficits in motor functioning may be present in ASD and ID, however deficits involving the ability to integrate motor and social cues are somewhat specific to ASD. Autism Res 2018, 11: 893-902. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This study highlighted the specificity of motor impairment in ASD comparing performances on a frequently used measure of motor impairment between clinical groups (ASD + ID and ID) and a non-clinical group. While previous research has suggested that multiple deficits in motor functioning may be present in ASD, our findings suggest that deficits in tasks involving the ability to integrate visual and motor cues (aiming and catching task) are somewhat specific to ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2018 · doi:10.1002/aur.1939