title: Do planning and visual integration difficulties underpin motor dysfunction in autism? A kinematic study of young children with autism.
abstract: This paper examines the upper-limb movement kinematics of young children (3-7 years) with high-functioning autism using a point-to-point movement paradigm. Consistent with prior findings in older children, a difference in movement preparation was found in the autism group (n = 11) relative to typically developing children. In contrast to typically developing children, the presence of a visual distractor in the movement task did not appear to impact on early movement planning or execution in children with autism, suggesting that this group were not considering all available environmental cues to modulate movement. The findings from this study are consistent with the possibility that autism is associated with a difficulty using visual information to prime alternative movements in a responsive way to environmental demands.
authors: Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.
authors: Ariane M
authors: AM
authors: Dowd
authors: Jennifer L
authors: JL
authors: McGinley
authors: John R
authors: JR
authors: Taffe
authors: Nicole J
authors: NJ
authors: Rinehart
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*