Beyond Words: Investigating Fine Motor Skills and Verbal Communication in Autism

In this project, we examined the relationship between fine motor skills and expressive verbal abilities in autistic individuals from late childhood through adolescence (“Beyond Words: an Investigation of Fine Motor Skills and the Verbal Communication Spectrum in Autism,” 2024).

To start, let’s review the importance of motor development in children. Motor skills lay the foundation for many developmental milestones, including language acquisition, cognitive growth, and social interactions. Research shows that a child’s ability to move and control their body is linked to their development of language, thinking, and social skills. Prior research has found that autistic children often experience delays and challenges in motor skill development. These motor impairments can manifest before social-communicative impairments are formally diagnosed. Despite the fact that up to 87% of autistic individuals exhibit significant motor challenges, these challenges are often overlooked in clinical practice.

Key Findings:

80% of autistic participants were impaired on at least one motor measure.
Significant lower performance was found in tasks requiring speed, dexterity, and coordination.
No significant differences were observed in manual motor strength.

In the current study, we assessed fine motor abilities in a group of autistic participants aged 8 to 17 and analyzed the associations between these motor skills and a broad range of verbal abilities. Autistic participants exhibited lower performance in dominant hand finger tapping speed, grooved pegboard performance, visual-motor integration (VMI), and VMI motor skills. However, no significant differences were found in grip strength or non-dominant hand finger tapping speed.

Fine Motor Skills Results

Detailed Motor and Language Correlations:

Diadochokinesis and Finger Tapping Speed: A significant negative correlation between diadochokinesis and dominant hand finger tapping speed (-0.411).
Articulation and Motor Skills: Significant negative correlations between articulation errors and grooved pegboard performance (-0.402), as well as VMI (-0.381) and motor coordination (-0.388).
Expressive Vocabulary and Motor Skills: A richer expressive vocabulary was significantly correlated with better VMI (0.384) and motor coordination (0.472).

For the full results, visit https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1379307

Possible Explanations:

Motor skills and language development in autism may be linked due to overlapping brain functions.
Motor control likely plays a role in language development, particularly in expressive language tasks.

Implications:

Frequent motor skill assessments are crucial for autistic children.
Early motor interventions may support language development in autistic individuals.
Further research should explore the neural mechanisms that underlie this motor-language connection.

References

Front. Psychiatry
Beyond words: an investigation of fine motor skills and the verbal communication spectrum in autism

Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2024

Abs DOI Bib HTML PDF Blog

Introduction: This study investigated the associations between fine motor skills and expressive verbal abilities in a group of 97 autistic participants (age 8-17, mean=12.41) and 46 typically developing youth (age 8-17, mean=12.48). Methods: Participants completed assessments of motor and verbal communication skills, including finger tapping speed, grooved pegboard, grip strength, visual-motor integration tasks, and measures of speech and communication skills. ASD group performance on motor tests was compared to controls. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze group differences and correlations between motor and verbal communication skills. Based on prior research, we hypothesized that individuals on the autism spectrum would exhibit deficits in fine motor speed, dexterity, pencil motor control, but not manual motor strength. Additionally, we expected that impaired fine motor skills would be linked to poorer performance on standardized measures of verbal abilities. Results: The results indicated that 80% of autistic participants demonstrated an impairment on at least one measure of motor skills, and as a group, they exhibited significantly poorer fine motor performance compared to the non-ASD group in dominant hand finger tapping speed, bilateral fine motor dexterity measured via the grooved pegboard task, and pencil motor coordination and visual-motor integration measured on the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration-Sixth Edition. Moreover, impaired fine motor skills were associated with poorer performance on standardized clinical measures of verbal abilities, including articulation errors, receptive and expressive language and vocabulary, rapid naming, oromotor sequencing, and parent reported functional communication skills and social communication symptoms. Discussion: Overall,our findings suggest there is a high prevalence of fine motor impairments in ASD, and these impairments were associated with a range of verbal abilities. Further research is warranted to better understand the underlying mechanisms of these associations and develop targeted interventions to address both fine motor and verbal impairments in ASD.
@article{simarro_gonzalez_2024, author = {}, title = {Beyond words: an investigation of fine motor skills and the verbal communication spectrum in autism}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychiatry}, volume = {15}, pages = {1379307}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1379307}, dimensions = {true}, publisher = {Front. Psychiatry}, }