Individuals with ASD have abnormal motor and perceptual functions that do not currently form diagnostic criteria of ASD, but nevertheless may affect everyday behaviour. Temporal processing seems to be one of such non-diagnostic yet impaired domains, although the lack of systematic studies testing different aspects of timing in the same sample of participants prevents a conclusive assessment of whether there is a generalized temporal deficit in ASD associated with diagnostic symptoms. 17 children diagnosed with ASD and 18 typically developing age- and IQ-matched controls carried out a set of motor and perceptual timing tasks: free tapping, simultaneity judgment, auditory duration discrimination, and verbal duration estimation. Parents of participants filled in a questionnaire assessing the sense and management of time. Children with ASD showed faster and more variable free tapping than controls. Auditory duration discrimination thresholds were higher in the ASD group than controls in a sub-second version of the task, while there were no group differences in a supra-second discrimination of intervals. Children with ASD showed more variable thresholds of simultaneity judgment, and they received lower parental scores for their sense and management of time. No group differences were observed in the verbal duration estimation task in the minute-range. Different timing functions were correlated in the ASD group but not among controls, whilst several timing measures correlated with ASD symptoms. We conclude that children with ASD show a broad range of abnormalities in temporal processing tasks including motor timing, perceptual timing, and temporal perspective.

Background: Very preterm birth may affect motor performance and social competence up to adulthood. Our objective was to describe perceived loneliness and social competence in children born very preterm in relation to motor impairment. Methods: 165 children born very preterm (birth weight ≤ 1500 g and/or gestational age < 32 weeks) were assessed at 11 years of age. Cerebral palsy (CP) was diagnosed by 2 years of age. At 11 years of age, motor outcome was assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children—Second edition (Movement ABC-2). Loneliness was evaluated by using the Peer Network and Dyadic Loneliness scale and social competence by using the Multisource Assessment of Children’s Social Competence Scale. Results: In total, 6 (4%) children had CP, 18 (11%) had Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) (Movement ABC-2 ≤ 5th percentiles), and 141 (85%) had typical motor development. There was no correlation between percentiles for total scores of the Movement ABC-2 and perceived loneliness or social competence when the children with motor impairment (CP or DCD) were excluded. Children with DCD reported less perceived loneliness, but more problems with social competence compared to children with CP. Conclusions: It is important to recognize children born very preterm with DCD to provide interventions and support services to prevent social exclusion.

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Aim Prematurity has been shown to affect social competence in children and adults. Our aim was to evaluate profiles of self‐reported social behaviours and loneliness in preterm‐ and term‐born adolescents. Methods Preterm (≤1500 g and, or, <32 gestational weeks)‐ and term‐born infants were recruited in Turku University Hospital from 2001 to 2006. The Multisource Assessment of Children's Social Competence Scale and the Peer Network and Dyadic Loneliness Scale were completed at the age of 11. Profiles of social competence and loneliness were labelled as low, average or high. Results A total of 172 preterm‐born and 134 term‐born adolescents returned the questionnaires. Most frequently, preterm adolescents reported a profile of average social competence and average levels of loneliness. Preterm‐born boys reported a profile of low social functioning less often (preterm‐born 36% vs. term‐born 54%), and preterm‐born girls reported a profile of high social functioning less frequently (preterm‐born 26% vs. term‐born 37%) than same‐sex controls. Sex differences in social functioning profiles were smaller in preterm than term‐born adolescents. Conclusion The majority of young adolescents born preterm reported a high or average social functioning profile irrespective of sex. Prematurity seems to level out differences between the sexes.