Dyspraxia in ASD: Impaired coordination of movement elements.

ABSTRACT: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have long been known to have deficits in the performance of praxis gestures; these motor deficits also correlate with social and communicative deficits. To date, the precise nature of the errors involved in praxis has not been clearly mapped out. Based on observations of individuals with ASD performing gestures, we hypothesized that the simultaneous execution of multiple movement elements is especially impaired in affected children. We examined 25 school-aged participants with ASD and 25 age-matched controls performing seven simultaneous gestures that required the concurrent performance of movement elements and nine serial gestures, in which all elements were performed serially. There was indeed a group × gesture-type interaction (P < 0.001). W

SUBMITTER: McAuliffe D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5360543 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature