Praxis, Motor Skills and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Praxis, Motor Skills, and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research in Developmental Disabilities examined the relationship of praxis, motor skills, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  As pediatric therapists, we are well aware of the basic motor skill deficits in balance, gait, and coordination in children with ASD but it can be hard to establish relationships between cognition, symptom severity, and motor performance in ASD.  Using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency and the Bilateral Motor Coordination subtest of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests, recent research assessed three groups of children (5-12 years of age) – children with ASD with high IQ (HASD), children with ASD with low IQ (LASD), and typically developing (TD) children. In addition, children were also evaluated performing simple and complex rhythmic upper and lower limb actions on their own (solo context) and with a social partner (social context).

Results of the research regarding the relationship of praxis, motor skills, and Autism

1.When compared to the control group, both ASD groups exhibited:

• lower gross and fine motor scores
• greater praxis errors in total and within various error types
• lower movement rates
• greater movement variability
• weaker interpersonal synchrony

2. When compared to the higher IQ ASD group, the lower IQ ASD group had lower gross motor scores and greater mirroring errors.

3. Regardless of IQ scores, all of the children with ASD exhibited a variety of motor impairments.

4. Fine and gross motor performance significantly correlated with IQ but not with autism severity.

5. Praxis errors (mainly, total, overflow, and rhythmicity) strongly correlated with autism severity and not IQ.

The researchers concluded that motor evaluations and interventions should be the standard of care for children with ASD.  In addition, dyspraxia should be recognized as an important part of the definition of ASD.

Reference:  Kaur, M., Srinivasan, S. M., & Bhat, A. N. (2018). Comparing motor performance, praxis, coordination, and interpersonal synchrony between children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Research in developmental disabilities, 72, 79-95.

Looking for motor interventions for children with coordination or motor deficits?  Check out the following –

25 Bilateral Coordination Exercises

Classroom Activity Posters

Fantastic Fingers® Fine Motor Program

 

The post Praxis, Motor Skills and Autism Spectrum Disorder appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Manual Motor Skills, Daily Living Skills and Autism

Developmental Science published research examining the longitudinal development of manual motor skills and daily living skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  Longitudinal grip strength and finger tapping, along with the relationship to current and future daily living skills, was evaluated in 90 individuals with ASD and 56 individuals with typical development who ranged in age from 5 to 40 years old.

The results indicated the following:

• the participants with ASD exhibited atypical motor development, characterized by similar performance during childhood but increasingly poorer performance from adolescence into adulthood.
• grip strength was correlated with current adaptive daily living skills.
• Time 1 grip strength predicted daily living skills eight years into the future.

The researchers concluded that individuals with ASD may experience increasingly more pronounced motor difficulties from adolescence into adulthood and that manual motor performance in ASD is related to adaptive daily living skills.

Reference:  Travers, B. G., Bigler, E. D., Duffield, T. C., Prigge, M. D., Froehlich, A. L., Lange, N., … & Lainhart, J. E. (2016). Longitudinal development of manual motor ability in autism spectrum disorder from childhood to mid‐adulthood relates to adaptive daily living skills. Developmental science.

Life Skills Checklists  help track progress towards routine life skills needed to succeed in the school, home and community.  The checklists have been created in Microsoft Excel.  When you record a score for each life skill, it automatically enters into the graph for a visual representation of progress.  If you are using the document in PDF format you will have to hand write in the score and the graphing information.  This is a great resource for tracking quarterly progress and establishing goals.  

The 14 life skills checklists include:

1. Dressing Skills
2. Personal Hygiene
3. Mealtime
4. Food Preparation
5. Chores
6. Safety Skills
7. School Routine
8. Before and After School Routine
9. Personal Health
10. Interpersonal
11. Transportation
12. Self Advocacy
13. Community Life Skills
14. Pre-Vocational

FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

The post Manual Motor Skills, Daily Living Skills and Autism appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Playground Interventions to Help Young Children with Autism

Most children in the United States do not get enough physical activity per day including young children with autism.  When children do not get the recommended moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day they are at greater risk for obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, low bone density, asthma, and depression.  Research indicates that children who are physically active at school are more likely to engage in MVPA outside of school.  Many young children with autism qualify for preschool services, therefore the school can encourage increased amounts of MVPA per day. Currently, the guidelines suggest that preschool students should have access to both 60 min of structured physical activity and 60 min of unstructured physical activity each day .

With regards to children with autism specifically, research indicates that this group of children engages in less MVPA per day than their typical peers. When children with autism participate in MVPA, it has been shown to decrease stereotypy and problem behaviors and increase academic engagement.

Previous research suggests that preschool teachers can help increase MVPA per day by:

1. including teacher-led physical activities.
2. providing a large variety of portable materials.
3. encouraging participation in active play and physical activity.

Recently research was published in Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities to determine if low- and high-effort teacher interventions result in increases in the (a) percent of time spent appropriately engaged with peers or materials, (b) number of social interactions, (c) percent of time spent in proximal play, and (d) percentage of time spent in MVPA.  This was a alternating treatment design with two young children (55 and 56 months old) with autism.  During the low effort intervention the teacher provided access to randomly selected portable materials (ie bubbles) and interacted with the student every two minutes with reminders regarding the portable materials or positive/neutral feedback,  For the high effort intervention, the teacher offered a choice between two age appropriate activities using the portable materials.  Again, the teacher interacted every two minutes if needed.  The high effort intervention attempted to encourage social behavior as well by allowing other children to participate but only the student participant in the study had access to the portable materials.  The other children had to ask the student to join the activity.  The final intervention was the enhanced intervention which was the same as the high effort intervention but also included prompting the students to participate in physical activity every 2 minutes (ie “let’s run and get the bubbles”).

The results indicated the following:

1. engagement and social behaviors increased during a structured choice (SC) intervention condition.
2. MVPA was variable within and across conditions, but appropriate physical activity (e.g., physical activity that was associated with engagement) was highest during the SC condition.
3. the enhanced intervention showed minimally higher physical activity with sustained social and engagement behaviors.

This research suggests that teachers can offer activity choices using portable materials to increase MVPA with appropriate engagement in young children with autism.

As school based therapists, we can offer activity suggestions to teachers for when young children with autism are in large and small play space areas.

 

The download, 50 Sensory Motor Activities for Kids, offers a collection of creative, fun filled activities promote fundamental motor skills, sensory processing, motor planning and body awareness. The ebook is divided into three sections – Games to Play in Small Spaces (classroom or small room), Games to Play in Large Spaces (gymnasium or outdoors) and Games to Play with Bean Bags. The activities require simple equipment such as bean bags, hoops, rope, balls, etc.  Just print out the activities and games to give to the teachers.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

 

 

 

 

Reference:  Jennifer R. Ledford, Justin D. Lane, Collin Shepley, and Sarah M. Kroll. Using Teacher-Implemented Playground Interventions to Increase Engagement, Social Behaviors, and Physical Activity for Young Children With Autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities September 2016 31: 163-173, first published on August 21, 2014 doi:10.1177/1088357614547892

The post Playground Interventions to Help Young Children with Autism appeared first on Your Therapy Source.

Light Touch, Postural Sway and Children with Autism

Gait & Posture published research comparing 16 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 16 typically developing children (TD) to determine the effects of a light fingertip touch on postural control.  Postural sway was measured with a force platform in different conditions:
anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions, light fingertip touch (LT) and no touch (NT) conditions, and with both eyes open (EO) and both eyes closed (EC).

The results indicated the following:
1.  ML sway was significantly greater in the ASD group than in the TDC group.
2.  a significant reduction in postural sway in the ML direction in the LT condition compared with the      NT condition which applied to both the EO and EC conditions.
3.  the reduction in ML sway between the NT and LT conditions was significantly greater in the ASD      than the TDC group.

The researchers concluded that the effects of a light fingertip touch on reducing postural sway appears to be more efficient in children with ASD compared with TDC therefore suggesting that a light fingertip touch may be helpful in improving postural stability in children with ASD.

Reference:  Fu-Chen Chen, Hsin-Lin Chen, Jui-Hung Tu, Chia-Liang Tsai. Effects of light touch on postural sway and visual search accuracy: A test of functional integration and resource competition hypotheses. Gait & Posture.  Volume 42, Issue 3, September 2015, Pages 280–284

Looking for balance activities?  Check out Cross the Beam game to challenge postural control and balance skills.

Top 10 Blogposts from 2014

Here are the top 10 blogposts viewed during 2014:

1.  Self Regulation Games for Children: http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2009/06/19/self-regulation-activities/

2.  12 Printable Halloween Freebies http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/10/24/12-printable-halloween-freebies/

3.  5 Ways to "Write" Your Name without Writing Letters http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/07/09/5-ways-to-write-your-name-without-writing-letters/

4.  Motor Planning Activity Using Pool Noodles http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/10/02/motor-planning-activity-using-pool-noodles/

5.  Early Predictors Of Autism - Self Regulation and Sleep Patterns http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/09/22/early-predictors-of-autism-self-regulation-and-sleep-patterns/

6.  Self-Improvement Worksheet http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/06/03/self-improvement/

7.  Sensory Based Problem Behaviors and Suggested Interventions http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/12/10/sensory-based-problem-behaviors-and-suggested-interventions/

8.  Effects of Weighted Blanked on Sleep Problems in Children with Autism http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/07/28/effects-of-weighted-blanked-on-sleep-problem-in-children-with-autism/

9.  Freebie – Black and White Lines for Pre-Writing Practice http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2014/05/29/black-and-white-lines-for-pre-writing-practice/

10.  Handwriting, Motor Skills, Motor Memory and Autism http://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/blog1/2012/12/28/handwriting-motor-skills-motor-memory-and-autism/

Motor Skills Linked to Autism Severity in Young Children

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly has published research on motor skill deficiencies and the severity of symptoms in 159 young children (110 with autism diagnosis) ages 12 - 33 months.  

The researcher, Megan MacDonald, from Oregon State University, found the following:

1.   children with autism were nearly a year behind their typical peers in fine motor skills, such as holding a spoon or grasping a small toy.

2.  children with autism were about six months behind in their gross motor skills, including activities like running and jumping.

3.  the motor skill deficiencies among the children with autism were not related to intellectual ability.

The researcher recommends that including fine and gross motor skill development into early interventions could help other areas of development such as social communication.  In addition MacDonald states that:  "hopes the new research will help build awareness about the importance of motor skill development and the need to include adapted physical education and physical and occupational therapy in treatment plans. Future research will look at different types of motor skill interventions to see if there are some that work better than others".

Reference:  Michelle Klampe. Motor skill deficiencies linked to autism severity in new research.  Retreived from the web at Oregon State University on 4/25/14 at http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2014/apr/motor-skill-deficiencies-linked-autism-severity-new-research.

Physical activity, Math and Children with Autism

Recently, a small research study was completed with 6 elementary students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who participated in a modified single-case design investigation. There was a four-day baseline phase followed by 13 days of an intervention phase that included structured physical activity based on the individual students’ needs, then a reversal phase for four days and finally four more days of the intervention. During each day of the study, the participating students completed a one-minute individualized mathematical progress paper immediately following the physical activity.

Results indicated the following:

1.  progress on math for 5 of the 6 students with ASD decreased when the intervention was withdrawn.

2.  progress on math increased again after intervention was reintroduced.

3.  all 6 of the students improved mathematical progress at the end of the study compared to baseline.

Reference: Brett Everhart, Chelsea Newman, Jennifer Rutecki, Jennifer Steinbacher, Samara McLaughlin. Structured Physical Activity and Math Progress of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Educational Collaborative. Volume 4 No 2 Retrieved from the web on 3/24/14 at http://journals.sfu.ca/eps/index.php/ec/article/view/36/pdf_18.



 

Classroom Activity Posters

Summary: 4 Large Posters including 16 individual exercises to complete in the classroom. Also includes video demonstration of exercises.

Find out more information at http://yourtherapysource.com/cap.html

Motor Skills, Social Skills and Autism

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly recently published research on the link between motor skill deficits and autism.  The participants in the study included 35, 6-15 year olds, with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The researchers looked at object control skills i.e. catching and throwing and locomotor skills i.e. walking, running and jumping.  Holding constant for age, IQ, ethnicity, gender, and clinical ASD diagnosis, the researchers tested the relationship of motor skills on social communicative skills. The following results were recorded:

• the students who had difficulties with object-control motor skills were more likely to have more severe social and communication skills than those who tested higher on the motor skills test.

The researchers concluded that the children with weaker motor skills had greater social communicative skill deficits. 

Reference:  Oregon State University. Children with delayed motor skills struggle more socially. Retrieved from the web on 9/23/13 at http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2013/jul/children-delayed-motor-skills-struggle-more-socially

 50 Sensory Motor Activities for Kids!

50 creative, fun filled activities and games that get children moving.  

Find out more information at Your Therapy Source.

3 Tips to Improve Motor Memory

Do you ever find that a child may learn a new motor skill (i.e. skipping) only to forget it rather quickly?  Or perhaps you teach a child a new skill and he/she remembers how to execute it for a long time (i.e. bike riding)?  There are many reasons why the body has better muscle memory for certain motor plans.  Here are 3 tips to help children retain motor skills over time:

1.  Practice, practice, practice.  The key factor in remembering a motor plan is to practice.  When a child learns to ride a bicycle, he/she practices hundreds perhaps thousands of revolutions in one bike riding session.  When a child practices a skill like skipping, he/she may only try it for 10-20 steps.  Therefore, the main ingredient to motor memory is practice! 

2.  Vary the environment.  It may be easy to skip in an isolated room with no distractions, but add in a crowded, loud gym and skipping may not be so easy anymore.  It is crucial to practice the skill in the real environment where you need to use the skill.  When you are able to complete a motor skill or carry out a motor plan in all environments you are more likely to retain that skill over time. 

3.  Space out practicing different but similar skills.  Perhaps you are working on galloping and the child is just mastering it.  Don't switch immediately to practicing skipping.  Space out the practice sessions between these two skills to allow the first skill to be retained.  Maybe a child is practicing proper spacing between each letter as he/she writes.  Don't immediately move to teaching a child proper spacing between words.  Since the spacing is a little different the child may have difficulty retaining the first skill of proper spacing between letters. 

Do you have any other tips to add to the list to help improve muscle memory?  Would love to hear your suggestions in the comments section. 

Effects of Visual and Auditory Input on Postural Control in Children with Autism

Gait and Posture published research on the postural control of children with autism under two different task conditions.  Nineteen children with autism (ages 10-15) were compared to 28 typically developing peers.  Using a force platform to assess postural control, each subject completed a visual searching task and an auditory digital span task. The following results were seen:

• children with autism spectrum disorder indicated higher postural sway scores in visual task versus auditory task although typically developing children scores remained unchanged.
• children with autism spectrum disorder also showed significantly higher sway scores than typically developing children in all parameters.  

The researchers concluded that in addition to primary differences in postural control of children with autism, visual and auditory tasks may also influence postural control.

Reference: Amir Hossein Memari, Parisa Ghanouni, Monir Shayestehfar, Vahid Ziaee, et al. Effects of visual search vs. auditory tasks on postural control in children with autism spectrum disorder. Gait and Posture. In press on 8/6/13 DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2013.07.012   

Motor Skills and Motor Planning in Autism

The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published research on motor abilities in autism. Using a computational approach the researchers broke down motor control into different components.
They discuss altered motor behavior in children with autism such as:

• slower repetitive hand and foot movements
• slower and less accurate manual dexterity
•  diadochokinesis - ability to rapidly perform alternating movements (ie between supination and pronation)
• decreased abilities with ball skills specifically aiming and catching
• unstable balance
• gait devations (ie tandem gait, heel or toe walking)
• reduced coordination of higher level locomotor skills
• hypotonia

Their findings suggest the following:

1. poor integration of information for efficient motor planning
2. increased variability in basic sensory inputs and motor outputs  

They concluded that motor learning processes are relatively intact and there is inconsistent evidence for deficits in predictive control.  The researchers recommend future work on sensorimotor noise and higher level motor planning in individuals with autism. 

Reference:  Emma Gowen, Antonia Hamilton. Motor Abilities in Autism: A Review Using a Computational Context. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. February 2013, Volume 43, Issue 2, pp 323-344

Motor Skills of Toddlers with Autism

A recent study in Autism describes the gross and fine motor skills of a cross-sectional group of 162 children with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 12 and 36 months. Age equivalents were determined for gross and fine motor skills for all children. The results indicated gross motor and fine motor differences became significantly greater with each 6-month period of chronological age. The importance of addressing these motor delays during the early years is discussed in the article. 

Reference: Meghann Lloyd,Megan MacDonald,and Catherine Lord. Motor skills of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders Autism March 2013 17: 133-146, first published on May 24, 2011 doi:10.1177/1362361311402230

Proprioception and Autism Spectrum Disorders

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published research on proprioceptive processing difficulties among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developmental disabilities. A total of 86 children (32 with ASD, 26 children with development disabilities but not ASD and 28 neurotypical children) were scored on the Comprehensive Observations of Proprioception (COP). The COP observes 18 items of motor and behavior regulation of proprioception. The results indicated that all three groups scored significantly different on each of the 18 items. The ASD and DD were significantly different on the four following items: feedback-related motor planning; tiptoeing; pushing others or objects; and crashing, falling, and running.

The researchers discuss how children with ASD may exhibit patterns of proprioception deficits that include feedback-related motor planning skills; tiptoeing; pushing others or objects; and crashing, falling, and running. These deficits may contribute to motor planning problems, decreased postural control and disruptive behaviors.

You can read the full article at AJOT.

Reference: Erna Imperatore Blanche,Gustavo Reinoso,Megan C. Chang,and Stefanie Bodison. Proprioceptive Processing Difficulties Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities Am J Occup Ther September 2012 66:621-624; doi:10.5014/ajot.2012.004234

Proprioceptive Poems- 2 movement poems with posters to encourage proprioceptive input

Find out more.