Motor Skills are Associated with Participation of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Poor motor skills meaningfully limit participation in home, school and community activities for elementary-age children with ASD—screen and address motor delays during treatment planning.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Oliveira et al. (2023) watched 5- to 10-year-old children with autism play, move, and join everyday activities.
They scored each child’s balance, running, ball skills, and body control. Then they asked parents how often and how fully the child took part in home, school, and community life.
The team ran the numbers to see if motor skills could predict participation.
What they found
Kids with better balance, ball handling, and body control joined in more often and stayed involved longer.
All four motor areas together explained a large share of the differences in participation across every setting.
How this fits with other research
Pan et al. (2009) and Hilton et al. (2010) already showed that elementary children with autism move like kids half their age. Caires now links those same delays to real-life exclusion at home, school, and in the park.
Ketcheson et al. (2017) proved that an eight-week motor program can lift locomotor and ball skills in preschoolers. Caires extends this by showing why the gains matter: better motor skills open doors to fuller participation later.
Golos et al. (2022) found that preschoolers with autism join structured learning tasks easily but lag in social play. Caires widens the lens to the elementary years and points to motor skill as a new lever for boosting all kinds of participation.
Why it matters
If a child avoids gym class or never climbs playground equipment, poor motor skills may be the barrier. Screen balance, ball play, and body control during intake. Add motor goals to the behavior plan and watch participation rise across home, school, and community routines.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) generally have a delay in the development of motor skills when compared to typical children, however, to date, no study has investigated whether motor limitations can interfere in the participation of these children. The objectives of this study were: verify if the motor skills can explain the frequency, the percentage of number of activities, the involvement and the desire to change in participation at home, school and community of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and; identify if contextual factors would modify the association between motor skills and participation outcomes. The participation and the motor skills were evaluated in 30 children with ASD between 5 and 10 years old. Participation outcomes were measured by the Participation and Environment Measure-Children and Youth (PEM-CY) and the motor skills were assessed by the Timed Up and Go, Timed Up and Down Stairs, Test of Gross Motor Development-2nd edition and Pediatric Balance Scale. The results of the study demonstrated that the motor skills of the locomotion, objects control, change position and balance explained participation outcomes of children with ASD classified from mild to moderate, between 5 and 10 years old. Moreover, the sex variable modified the association between the motor skills and the school participation, with girls performing less activities at this setting.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2023 · doi:10.1155/2018/1825046