Previous research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) may have overlapping social and motor skill impairments. This study compares ASD, DCD, and typically developing (TD) youth on a range of social, praxis and motor skills, and investigates the relationship between these skills in each group. Data were collected on participants aged 8–17 (n = 33 ASD, n = 28 DCD, n = 35 TD). Overall, the clinical groups showed some similar patterns of social and motor impairments but diverged in praxis impairments, cognitive empathy, and Theory of Mind ability. When controlling for both social and motor performance impairments, the ASD group showed significantly lower accuracy on imitation of meaningful gestures and gesture to command, indicating a prominent deficit in these praxis skills in ASD. Lay Summary Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have social and motor skill impairments to varying degrees. This study compares ASD, DCD, and typically developing (TD) youth on a range of social, praxis, and motor skills. ASD and DCD shared similar patterns of gross and fine motor skills, but differed in skills related to making gestures. Specifically, our results also suggest that ASD has a prominent deficit in gesture performance and meaningful imitation compared to TD and DCD groups.

Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. Understanding the mechanisms of emotion production and emotion processing is important for addressing social communication deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our results suggest that prompted emotional expressions in individuals with ASD are considered less genuinely expressed than those of their typically developing peers. This authenticity is related to neural responses in social processing brain regions. These findings offer insight for OTs to better treat and develop therapies to address social communication deficits in individuals with ASD. Primary Author and Speaker: Emily Kilroy Additional Authors and Speakers: Sharada Krishnan Contributing Authors: Christiana Butera, Laura Harrison, Aditya Jayashankar, Anusha Hossain, Alexis Nalbach, and Lisa Aziz-Zadeh

Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. The results of this study indicate the need to develop interventions targeting intentional facial emotional expression (EE) abilities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD produce expressions that are perceived as less genuine than those of neurotypical children. Aspects of EE are linked to social communication challenges among people with ASD. Primary Author and Speaker: Sharada Krishnan Contributing Authors: Emily Kilroy, Christiana Butera, Laura Harrison, Aditya Jayashankar, Anusha Hossain, Alexis Nalbach, and Lisa Aziz-Zadeh

Date Presented 03/28/20 Comorbid anxiety and hyperarousal in youths with ASD provides additional challenges to occupational participation and competence, and thus occupational adaptation. By studying the effect of anxiety and arousal on competence, we found contrary trends for controls and ASD, suggesting less resilient behavior to anxiety in ASD and lower anxiety-mediated competence in older youths with ASD. This provides foundational knowledge for the design of pragmatic OT interventions. Primary Author and Speaker: Aditya Jayashankar Contributing Authors: Christiana Butera, Laura Harrison, Emily Kilroy, Alexis Nalbach, Anusha Hossain, Lisa Aziz-Zadeh

Date Presented 03/28/20 The results of this study indicate the need to develop interventions targeting EFP abilities for ASD. Children with ASD showed decreased valence, but not accuracy, of their positive-valence facial expressions. In ASD, there was a negative correlation between EFP accuracy and ASD symptoms related to social functioning. There were no relationships found between affect recognition accuracy and EFP accuracy. Primary Author and Speaker: Sharada Krishnan Additional Authors and Speakers: Emily Kilroy Contributing Authors: Christiana Butera, Laura Harrison, Aditya Jayashankar, Anusha Hossain, Alexis Nalbach, Lisa Aziz-Zadeh