Relationship between early motor milestones and severity of restricted and repetitive behaviors in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

This study explored the relationships between the later age of achievement of early motor milestones, current motor atypicalities (toe walking), and the severity of restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents of 147 children and adolescents with ASD (M = 8.09 years, SD = 4.28; 119 males) completed an early developmental milestones questionnaire and the Social Responsiveness Scale as a measure of Insistence on Sameness (IS) and Repetitive Mannerisms (RM). Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test whether RM and IS behaviors were predicted by early motor milestones, or current toe walking. The final model predicting RM accounted for 15% of the variance (F = 3.02, p = .009), with toe walking as a unique and independent predictor of RM scores (t = 3.568, p = .001). The final model predicting IS accounted for 19.1% of variance in IS scores (F = 4.045, p = .001), with chronological age (CA) (t = 2.92, p = .004), age when first standing (t = 2.09, p = .038), and toe walking (t = 2.53, p = .013) as unique independent predictors. Toe walking (t = 2.4, p = .018) and age when first sitting (t = 2.08, p = .04) predicted the severity of RRBs on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (F = 2.334, p = .036). Our study replicates previous findings on the relationship between concurrent motor impairments and RRBs, and provides the first evidence for the association between RRBs and age of attainment of early motor milestones. Autism Res 2017. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1163-1168. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

What can autism teach us about the role of sensorimotor systems in higher cognition? New clues from studies on language, action semantics, and abstract emotional concept processing

“…2, Part D), in their autistic participants, between the degree of abnormality in the arcuate and uncinate fasciculi and childhood language symptoms as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (Le Couteur et al, 2003). At the behavioural level, relationships between movement deficits and autistic symptom severity are well documented in our review (MacDonald, Lord, & Ulrich, 2014;Papadopoulos et al, 2012;Stevenson, Lindley, & Murlo, 2017;Travers et al, 2015Travers et al, , 2013Uljarevic, Hedley, Alvares, Varcin, & Whitehouse, 2017;Colombo-Dougovito & Reeve, 2017 are an exception, but a questionable one due to their methods).…”

Toe Walking Assessment in Autism Spectrum Disorder Subjects: A Systematic Review

“…We found the TW subjects percentage very variable: 50% (Weber, ), 19% (Ming et al, ), 20.1% (Barrow et al, ), 45% (Shetreat‐Klein et al, ), 82% (Accardo & Barrow, ), 32% (Valagussa, Trentin, Balatti, et al, ), 49% (Uljarević et al, ). We did not consider the Robert's study results because he included only TTB subjects.…”

“…TW was assessed using different information sources: information collected by parents during the medical history (Accardo & Barrow, ; Ming et al, ; Robert, ) questionnaires administered to the parents (McDougle et al, ; Uljarević et al, ) or questionnaires completed by the parents every 14 days (Weber, ); information collected by therapists' records or physicians' records (Ming et al, ); clinical observation by the medical doctor during office visits (Accardo & Barrow, ; Barrow et al, ; Ming et al, ; Robert, ; Shetreat‐Klein et al, ); video observation (Persicke et al, ; Shetreat‐Klein et al, ); a therapist assessed the presence of TTB using both direct observation as well as information obtained from the subject's main caregiver through a structured checklist. When the results were in disagreement, the therapist did a standardized assessment (Valagussa, Trentin, Balatti, et al, . …”

“…During walking TW was described qualitatively using several systems: Absent or present (Barrow et al, ; Ming et al, ; Shetreat‐Klein et al, ; Valagussa, Trentin, Balatti, et al, ). Absent, present in the past, present (Uljarević et al, ); Absent, present temporarily, present constantly (Weber, ); Absent, present in the past, intermittently present, persistent (Accardo & Barrow, ); Grading from 0 (=flat foot) to 5 (=TW) (Robert, ); Rating the change using an 11‐point clinician‐rated global severity change scale (−5 = very bad, could not be worse; 0 = unchanged; 5 = much improvement, could not be better) (McDougle et al, ). …”

“…Seven studies assessed TW only during walking (Accardo & Barrow, ; Barrow et al, ; McDougle et al, ; Ming et al, ; Persicke et al, ; Shetreat‐Klein et al, ; Uljarević et al, ). However, the condition is not necessarily related only to walking, since these children can remain on their tiptoes while standing or running.…”