Many symptoms of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are evident in early infancy, but ASD is usually diagnosed much later by procedures lacking objective measurements. It is necessary to anticipate the identification of ASD by improving the objectivity of the procedure and the use of ecological settings. In this context, atypical motor skills are reaching consensus as a promising ASD biomarker, regardless of the level of symptom severity. This study aimed to assess differences in the whole-body motor skills between 20 children with ASD and 20 children with typical development during the execution of three tasks resembling regular activities presented in virtual reality. The virtual tasks asked to perform precise and goal-directed actions with different limbs vary in their degree of freedom of movement. Parametric and non-parametric statistical methods were applied to analyze differences in children’s motor skills. The findings endorsed the hypothesis that when particular goal-directed movements are required, the type of action could modulate the presence of motor abnormalities in ASD. In particular, the ASD motor abnormalities emerged in the task requiring to take with the upper limbs goal-directed actions with low degree of freedom. The motor abnormalities covered (1) the body part mainly involved in the action, and (2) further body parts not directly involved in the movement. Findings were discussed against the background of atypical prospective control of movements and visuomotor discoordination in ASD. These findings contribute to advance the understanding of motor skills in ASD while deepening ecological and objective assessment procedures based on VR.

Esta investigación presenta un estudio cualitativo y descriptivo sobre los recursos del C.A.R.D. CAPACITAS-UCV, cuya misión es la promoción de la autonomía personal de las personas discapacitadas, con la habilitación de entornos adaptados mediante el deuso de Productos de Apoyo (PA) personalizados. Dada la gran cantidad y variedad de PA para acceso a las Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (TIC), se hace necesaria la existencia de este tipo de centros de referencia que sirvan como punto de apoyo y asesoramiento. El estudio pone de manifiesto las necesidades cubiertas porlos centros y la importancia de tener un catálogo de referencia de PA para acceso alas TIC, para la mejora de la calidad de vida de las personas discapacitadas.

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