Community‐based postural control assessment in autistic individuals indicates a similar but delayed trajectory compared to neurotypical individuals

Abstract

Autistic individuals exhibit significant sensorimotor differences. Postural stability and control are foundational motor skills for successfully performing many activities of daily living. In neurotypical development, postural stability and control develop throughout childhood and adolescence. In autistic development, previous studies have focused primarily on individual age groups (e.g., childhood, adolescence, adulthood) or only controlled for age using age-matching. Here, we examined the age trajectories of postural stability and control in autism from childhood through adolescents using standardized clinical assessments. In study 1, we tested the postural stability of autistic (n = 27) and neurotypical (n = 41) children, adolescents, and young adults aged 7-20 years during quiet standing on a force plate in three visual conditions: eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), and eyes open with the head in a translucent dome (Dome). Postural sway variability decreased as age increased for both groups, but autistic participants showed greater variability than neurotypical participants across age. In study 2, we tested autistic (n = 21) and neurotypical (n = 32) children and adolescents aged 7-16 years during a dynamic postural control task with nine targets. Postural control efficiency increased as age increased for both groups, but autistic participants were less efficient compared to neurotypical participants across age. Together, these results indicate that autistic individuals have a similar age trajectory for postural stability and control compared to neurotypical individuals, but have lower postural stability and control overall. Lay SummaryAutistic and neurotypical children and adolescents performed a balance test and a body control test. Autistic participants had less stable balance than neurotypical participants. Autistic and neurotypical participants had less stable balance with their eyes closed and when wearing a dome on their head. Neurotypical participants had better body control than autistic participants. Autistic and neurotypical children had less stable balance and body control than adolescents.

NSF DARE—transforming modeling in neurorehabilitation: a patient-in-the-loop framework

“…Neurotypical adults maintain the ability to reweigh sensory information based on its integrity or availability but return to visual over-dependence with aging, which increases their risk of falls [ 240 ]. However, neurodevelopmental conditions like developmental coordination condition and autism may not exhibit typical sensory reweighing in some contexts [ 241 – 244 ]. Condition-specific models could offer precise diagnostic tools for distinguishing typical from atypical development and differentiating between neurodevelopmental conditions.…”

NSF DARE—Transforming modeling in neurorehabilitation: Four threads for catalyzing progress

“…Our visuomotor assessment paradigm yields multimodal data that is fed back into both hypothesis-driven and data-driven computational models of visuomotor integration and postural control to identify clinically-significant problems, phenotypes within and between diagnostic conditions, and high-yield intervention targets. Our approach can be used in community settings with neurotypical and neurodivergent children, adolescents, and adults across a wide range of abilities [179], reducing barriers to identification of visuomotor problems that can negatively impact daily living skills and quality of life [180,181].…”

Intervention Based on Psychomotor Rehabilitation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder ASD: Effect on Postural Control and Sensory Integration

“…Yet, children with ASD are reported to have problems in modulating sensory information and deficiencies in visual processing [ 20 , 21 ]. It is obvious that postural sway increased when visual information was unavailable in ASD children [ 22 ]. Stins et al [ 23 ] also reported that children with mild ASD had increased postural instability in the mediolateral direction while their eyes were closed (EC).…”