Gross Motor Development, Movement Abnormalities, and Early Identification of Autism

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 644 - 656
• Main Authors: Ozonoff, Sally, Young, Gregory S., Goldring, Stacy, Greiss-Hess, Laura, Herrera, Adriana M., Steele, Joel, Macari, Suzanne, Hepburn, Susan, Rogers, Sally J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.04.2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Autistic Disorder - diagnosis; Autistic Disorder - epidemiology; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child clinical studies; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Control Groups; Crawling; Developmental Delays; Developmental disorders; Early Diagnosis; Female; Humans; Identification; Infantile autism; Infants; Male; Maturity (Individuals); Medical sciences; Mental Age; Motor Development; Motor disordered infants; Motor Skills Disorders - diagnosis; Motor Skills Disorders - epidemiology; Movement disorders; Movement Disorders - diagnosis; Movement Disorders - epidemiology; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Pediatrics; Physical Activities; Prone; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Skills; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public Health; Severity of Illness Index; Videotape Recording; Videotape Recordings; Walking; Motor; Autism; Early identification; Human; Motor development; Early; Developmental disorder; Diagnosis; Motricity; Child; Abnormal movement
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-007-0430-0

Gross motor development (supine, prone, rolling, sitting, crawling, walking) and movement abnormalities were examined in the home videos of infants later diagnosed with autism (regression and no regression subgroups), developmental delays (DD), or typical development. Group differences in maturity were found for walking, prone, and supine, with the DD and Autism-No Regression groups both showing later developing motor maturity than typical children. The only statistically significant differences in movement abnormalities were in the DD group; the two autism groups did not differ from the typical group in rates of movement abnormalities or lack of protective responses. These findings do not replicate previous investigations suggesting that early motor abnormalities seen on home video can assist in early identification of autism.