title: The relationship of handedness to the cognitive, language, and visuo-spatial skills of autistic patients.
abstract: The relationship between hand preference, age, and developmental functioning was examined in 70 autistic patients. Unilateral or mixed handedness appeared to be stabilized by the age of five years. Patients with established hand lateralization tended to function better in all developmental areas including intelligence, language, and visuospatial abilities. It is a tenable hypothesis that the presence or absence of hand lateralization by age five may be an important predictor of outcome in autism.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male