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Motor functioning, exploration, visuospatial cognition and language development in preschool children with autism
Abstract
In order to understand typical and atypical developmental trajectories it is important to
assess how strengths or weaknesses in one domain may be affecting performance in other
domains. This study examined longitudinal relations between early fine motor
functioning, visuospatial cognition, exploration, and language development in preschool
children with ASD and children with other developmental delays/disorders. The ASD
group included 63 children at T1 (Mage = 27.10 months, SD = 8.71) and 46 children at T2
(Mage = 45.85 months, SD = 7.16). The DD group consisted of 269 children at T1
(Mage = 17.99 months, SD = 5.59), and 121 children at T2 (Mage = 43.51 months,
SD = 3.81). A subgroup nested within the total sample was randomly selected and studied
in-depth on exploratory behavior. This group consisted of 50 children, 21 children with
ASD (Mage = 27.57, SD = 7.09) and 29 children with DD (Mage = 24.03 months, SD = 6.42).
Fine motor functioning predicted language in both groups. Fine motor functioning was
related to visuospatial cognition in both groups and related to object exploration, spatial
exploration, and social orientation during exploration only in the ASD group. Visuospatial
cognition and all exploration measures were related to both receptive and expressive
language in both groups. The findings are in line with the embodied cognition theory,
which suggests that cognition emerges from and is grounded in the bodily interactions of
an agent with the environment. This study emphasizes the need for researchers and
clinicians to consider cognition as emergent from multiple interacting systems.
... Moreover, research on motor differences of children with ASD compared with other children with developmental concerns has been inconclusive. When comparing children with different types of diagnosis, children with ASD performed more poorly than children with ADHD (13) or DD (14), whereas others observed no such difference (4,15,16). According to Jeoung (17), there were no notable variations in fine motor skills between children with ASD and those with borderline or mild ID. ...
... One reason might be that more severe difficulties with attentional deficits, visual perception, and executive functioning in children with ASD and ADHD or ID were evident compared with children with ASD (36-38). Rather surprisingly, the findings from this study did not correspond with previous research (13), where a significantly lower score was found in children with ASD than children with ADHD or ID (14). It appears that there were contrasting results in our study, and a possible explanation for this might be the heterogeneous samples in the previous studies (13,14). ...
... Rather surprisingly, the findings from this study did not correspond with previous research (13), where a significantly lower score was found in children with ASD than children with ADHD or ID (14). It appears that there were contrasting results in our study, and a possible explanation for this might be the heterogeneous samples in the previous studies (13,14). Though those ADHD or ID groups were the primary diagnosis of all individuals in the recruited group, some children with co-occurring developmental coordination disorder or motor speech impairments have not been excluded for analysis. ...
Objective
The acquisition of fine motor skills is considered to be a crucial developmental milestone throughout early childhood. This study aimed to investigate the fine motor performance of young children with different disability diagnoses.
Methods
We enrolled a sample of 1,897 young children under the age of 6 years who were at risk of developmental delays and were identified by a transdisciplinary team. A series of standardized developmental assessments included the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Third Edition, Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth Edition, Peabody Developmental Motor Scale-Second Edition, and Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition were used. Retrospective chart reviews were conducted on all children to identify specific developmental disorders. The number of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), comorbidity, motor dysfunction, and unspecified developmental delays (DD) were 363 (19.1%), 223 (11.8%), 234 (12.3%), 285 (15.0%), 128 (6.7%), and 590 (31.1%), respectively.
Results
Young children with ID, comorbidity, and motor dysfunction demonstrated significant difficulty in performing manual dexterity and visual motor integration tasks and scored significantly lower in these areas than children with ASD, ADHD, and unspecified DD. In addition, fine motor performance was associated with cognitive ability in children with different disability diagnoses, indicating that young children showed better fine motor performance when they demonstrated better cognitive ability.
Conclusion
Our findings support that differences in fine motor performance differ by disability type. Close links between fine motor performance and cognitive ability in children under the age of 6 years were seen in all disability types.
... Ao observar as áreas de desenvolvimento corporal humano, a interdependência entre os domínios psicomotores, afetivos e cognitivos (e dentro do processo cognitivo está a linguagem) no desenvolvimento global de um indivíduo é ressaltada pela literatura cientifica em vários campos de conhecimento, tanto no contexto da saúde (CHOI, LEECH, TAGER-FLUSBERG, NELSON, 2018;HELLENDOORN et al., 2015;HOUWEN et al., 2016;LEBARTON, LANDA, 2019) quanto da educação (GALLAHUE; OZMUN; GOODWAY, 2005;GONÇALVES, 2008;ROSA NETO et al., 2011). Fonseca (2008, p. 410) afirma que "(...) o corpo contém o sentido concreto de todo o comportamento sócio-histórico da humanidade (...) no qual e a partir do qual o ser humano concentra e dirige todas as suas experiências e vivências". ...
... Diante desta questão, Hellendoorn et al. (2015) realizaram uma revisão na literatura e encontraram estudos que observaram déficits motores em crianças com diagnóstico ou com risco de TEA. Estes estudos advertiram sobre a importância da interação com o mundo físico e o social, no sentido de obter uma base conceitual para que estas crianças possam aprender a linguagem de maneira significativa. ...
... Porém, inferem, não há confirmação efetiva se esta interação é preditiva do desenvolvimento da linguagem de crianças com TEA. Hellendoorn et al. (2015) mencionam alguns estudos que sugerem que o desenvolvimento da linguagem pode estar relacionado às habilidades viso espaciais (percepção do entorno e coordenação visual) e assinalam que bebês pré-verbais já desenvolvem conhecimento espacial, com o apoio dos cuidadores e da linguagem que ouvem, pois as preposições, demonstrativos, verbos e narrativas requerem tal entendimento (visuoespacial, ou seja, a capacidade de perceber seus relacionamentos com o entorno). ...
O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar se há evidências na literatura científica sobre uma possível relação ou correlação entre habilidades sensório-motoras e motoras e o desenvolvimento da linguagem (aquisição de repertórios receptivos e expressivos) em crianças com Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo (TEA). Estas crianças comumente apresentam problemas de linguagem e algumas demonstram falhas no desenvolvimento do sistema motor. Para revisar a literatura foram utilizados os descritores: (autismo OR "Transtorno do espectro autista" OR autism OR “autism spectrum disorder”); (linguagem OR language development); ("habilidades sensório-motoras" OR "habilidades motoras" OR "sensorimotor skills" OR "motor skills"). As seguintes bases de dados foram selecionadas, Pub Med (US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health); Frontiers in Neuroscience | Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience; Science Direct – Journals & Books; SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online); Periódicos CAPES (Portal de periódicos CAPES/MEC). Foram selecionados cento e setenta e sete estudos, porém, apenas doze estudos atenderam aos critérios de inclusão (relacionam questões motoras e linguagem de crianças com TEA). Os estudos selecionados apontaram relações e correlações entre habilidades sensório motoras e desenvolvimento da linguagem; coordenação viso motora e desenvolvimento da cognição, comunicação e linguagem. Entretanto, devido ao número limitado de comprovações experimentais, autores sugerem a realização de mais estudos empíricos e longitudinais que envolvam o desenvolvimento do sistema motor e da linguagem de crianças com TEA.
... In childhood, this motor skill should be the first to be perfected since it is involved in the largest movements of the body, requiring the participation of many body muscles. Furthermore, individuals with severe gross motor impairments tend to present decreased social skills (16,28,29) . ...
... On the other hand, fine motor skills (28)(29)(30) are specifically related to the execution of more precise and refined movements, requiring and resulting from greater control of specific muscles. It is important to note that the greater the degree of complexity required for the execution of an activity, the greater the impact on the cognitive system, and the greater the demand for a precise performance of the central nervous system. ...
... A study conducted with children aged 14-15 months (28) pointed out that fine motor coordination may be directly related to language development, because fine motor skills facilitate the interaction between the physical and social domains, thus enabling the development of expressive language. This could explain the superior performance of children with verbal ASD (who present expressive oral language) compared with that of those with non-verbal ASD in this area. ...
Purpose
Compare the psychoeducational profiles of children with verbal and non-verbal Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Methods
Cross-sectional study conducted with a sample of 30 children with a medical diagnosis of ASD (15 verbal and 15 non-verbal) aged 2-9 years. The Psychoeducational Profile-Revised (PEP-R) scale was applied to assess the children’s development. The data were analyzed quantitatively and comparatively. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to evaluate the compatibility between the groups regarding the scores obtained in each PEP-R area, with chronological age as the covariate, and Student’s t-Test was used for the independent samples (p≤0.001).
Results
The scores in the different areas of the PEP-R were higher in the verbal group, with associations between language development and cognitive and social adaptive skills in the studied sample. Comparison between the groups showed a lower profile of the non-verbal group, with statistically significant differences in the areas of imitation, perception, gross and fine motor coordination, eye-hand coordination, cognitive performance, and verbal performance.
Conclusion
The goal of comparing the psychoeducational profiles of verbal and non-verbal ASD children was reached, and statistically significant differences were observed. The children with non-verbal ASD presented a lower psychoeducational profile compared with that of verbal ASD children. Further studies with larger samples, delimited age groups, and more specific tests in each developmental area are suggested.
Keywords:
Autism; Communication; Cognition; Development; Language
... Na infância, essa é a primeira motricidade a ser aperfeiçoada, visto que ela permite as maiores movimentações do corpo, e esses movimentos requerem a participação de muitos músculos do corpo para serem realizados. Além disso, há uma tendência de uma diminuição nas habilidades sociais nos indivíduos que apresentam prejuízo motor amplo grave (16,28,29) . ...
... Por outro lado, a capacidade motora fina (28)(29)(30) se relaciona pontualmente à execução de movimentos de maior precisão, composta por movimentos mais refinados, requerendo e resultando de um maior controle de músculos específicos. É importante observar que, quanto maior o grau de complexidade a execução de uma atividade exigir, maior sobrecarga de trabalho o sistema cognitivo terá e mais a atuação precisa do sistema nervoso central será exigida. ...
... Um estudo realizado em crianças de 14 e 15 meses (28) apontou que a coordenação motora fina pode estar diretamente relacionada ao desenvolvimento da linguagem, pelo fato de as habilidades motoras finas facilitarem a interação entre físico e social, possibilitando então o desenvolvimento expressivo da linguagem. Este fato contribuiria para explicação do desempenho superior de autistas verbais (que possuem linguagem expressiva oral) em relação aos não verbais na vertente motora fina. ...
Purpose
Compare the psychoeducational profiles of children with verbal and non-verbal Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Methods
Cross-sectional study conducted with a sample of 30 children with a medical diagnosis of ASD (15 verbal and 15 non-verbal) aged 2-9 years. The Psychoeducational Profile-Revised (PEP-R) scale was applied to assess the children’s development. The data were analyzed quantitatively and comparatively. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to evaluate the compatibility between the groups regarding the scores obtained in each PEP-R area, with chronological age as the covariate, and Student’s t-Test was used for the independent samples (p≤0.001).
Results
The scores in the different areas of the PEP-R were higher in the verbal group, with associations between language development and cognitive and social adaptive skills in the studied sample. Comparison between the groups showed a lower profile of the non-verbal group, with statistically significant differences in the areas of imitation, perception, gross and fine motor coordination, eye-hand coordination, cognitive performance, and verbal performance.
Conclusion
The goal of comparing the psychoeducational profiles of verbal and non-verbal ASD children was reached, and statistically significant differences were observed. The children with non-verbal ASD presented a lower psychoeducational profile compared with that of verbal ASD children. Further studies with larger samples, delimited age groups, and more specific tests in each developmental area are suggested.
Keywords:
Autism; Communication; Cognition; Development; Language
... Delays in preterm infants' motor skills can be related to delays in their language learning (Benassi et al., 2016;Sansavini et al., 2011b). The relation between motor skills and language development has been investigated in full-term children (e.g., Walle & Campos, 2014) and children with atypical developmental trajectories such as ASD (e.g., Hellendoorn et al., 2015;LeBarton & Iverson, 2013). Only a few studies have investigated this link in the preterm population. ...
... They attend to objects quickly and can learn objects' names quicker. Following this, Hellendoorn et al. (2015) found that fine motor skills between 1.5 and 2.5 years of age predict expressive and receptive language at the end of the third year through visual processing and object exploration in children with ASD. The increase in fine motor controlling of fingers triggers gesture use and early communicative behaviors at the end of the first year (Iverson & Thelen, 1999). ...
... Hence, early motor development problems may lead to cascading effects that can disrupt language development (LeBarton & Landa, 2019). Instead of a direct relation between motor skills and language development, motor skills lead to the cascading effect for language development through visual skills (e.g., Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Iverson, 2021;Oakes & Rakison, 2019). ...
Language development is intertwined with motor development. This study examined how visual processing might mediate the relation between language development and motor skills in preterm (PT, n = 34, Mean gestational age = 30 weeks) and full-term infants (FT, n = 35, Mean gestational age = 38.9 weeks) at 13 months of age. Infants’ visual processing, fine and gross motor skills were tested using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Parents reported on infants’ language skills (word comprehension and early communicative behavior), using the Turkish version of CDI (TCDI). Results showed that PT infants performed worse than their FT peers on gross motor skills and visual processing, but not on language. When controlling for age and neonatal condition (being preterm or not), visual processing mediated the relation between gross motor skills and word comprehension as well as early communicative behavior. However, for fine motor skills, visual processing mediated the relation between fine motor skills and early communicative behavior but not word comprehension. The relations between motor skills and visual processing were more robust for the PT group than the FT group. Following developmental cascades, these findings suggest that motor skills contribute to language development through visual processing. These relations are prominent for preterm infants who have delays in motor skills. PT children’s limited interactions with their environment due to problems in motor skills can be connected to delays in visual processing.
... Within the domains assessed by the CPEP-3, the motor performance may have high predictive accuracy (Bhat et al., 2012;Hellendoorn et al., 2015;West, 2019), even surpassing in some respects domains such as communication and maladaptive behaviors, which are related to the core diagnostic criteria of ASD. The CPEP-3 assessment results indicate that children with ASD face more challenges in domains of communication and maladaptive behaviors compared to the motor domain. ...
... Although "Motor" is a valid predictor of various symptoms of autism (Bhat, 2020;Gong et al., 2020), it is not determinative. Second, the CPEP-3 assessment showed that 15.10% of children had an appropriate level in the motor domain, this figure is similar to the results of several studies (Kangarani-Farahani et al., 2023;Paquet et al., 2016), suggesting that not all children with ASD as potent predictors of impairment severity across various domains in children with ASD (Bhat, 2021;Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Lim et al., 2021). ...
Identifying a “core deficit” is essential for early detection and intervention in developmental disorders among children. However, the presence of a core deficit within autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to be unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of the core deficit in autism spectrum disorders. This study evaluated 543 children diagnosed with ASD by using Chinese version of the Psychoeducational Profile-Third Edition (CPEP-3). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to construct single-factor models (assuming the presence of a core deficit) and a multi-factor model (assuming the absence of core deficits) based on the assessed data, and then to compare the fit of the two types of models. Assessments revealed developmental delays and adaptive challenges among the children with ASD. The single-factor model assuming the “motor” domain as the “core deficit” showed a superior fit (CFI = 0.86, AIC = 356.47, ECVI = 0.66) than other single-factor models. The multi-factor model, which assumes no core deficit, provided a better fit and greater predictive accuracy (CFI = 0.87, AIC = 351.94, ECVI = 0.65) than all single-factor models. ASD is characterized by widespread developmental delays and adaptive challenges. While motor impairment may serve as an effective predictor of these issues, it does not fully account for the diverse and complex symptomatology observed in children with ASD. The symptoms in these children likely arise from multiple factors, which are not adequately explained by a single core deficit model.
... Su et al. (2021) found that early social motivation was predictive of later functional language use. Hellendoorn et al. (2015) revealed how early fine motor functioning, mediated by object exploration and visuospatial cognition, was predictive of later expressive language skills in autistic children. Rose et al. (2020) examined how object play, visual attention, and symbolic word learning influenced language growth. ...
... One study found that the influence of nonverbal cognition on expressive language skills was mediated by object exploration and visuospatial cognition (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). Iao et al. (2023) found that motor imitation was a strong predictor of concurrent and longitudinal measures of expressive language. ...
Functional speech” by 5 years of age is widely established as increasing the probability of long-term positive outcomes across a range of domains for autistic individuals. While terms such as “functional” or “useful” speech are often used, what defines these terms is not well established. Furthermore, most research focusing on language development has emphasized the transition from little or no language to use of single words, but much less is known about the transition from single words to phrase speech, which could be equally important. The verb lexicon is foundational to the development of simple, generative phrases and has been linked to prosocial behaviors and general developmental outcomes including better social communication skills, socioemotional reciprocity, and nonverbal communication in autistic children. The current systematic review synthesized information from 20 independent samples to characterize autistic children who transitioned from single words to phrase speech. On average, 48% of the pooled sample transitioned to phrase speech during the study periods. Results were highly variable across studies. Participants under the age of 5 years were more likely to transition to phrases than participants over the age of 5. Though average standard scores were above 50, children who transitioned to phrases generally demonstrated below average adaptive and cognitive skills and moderate-high ASD symptomatology. Variable measures of cognition made it difficult to ascertain patterns in cognitive skills; nonetheless, nonverbal IQ emerged as a salient predictor of the transition to phrases across studies. More research is needed to better understand who transitions beyond single words, clinical benchmarks on the way to generative phrase speech and the factors that predict this transition. Such information can be used to inform clinical decision making and develop or improve targeted interventions based on individual communication profiles. This could make the use of phrases more likely for a greater number of autistic individuals, increasing the likelihood that these individuals communicate independently and effectively with others.
... Early motor skills have been associated with later RL skills in children with ASD (Hannant, 2018). In addition, visuospatial cognition has been associated with later RL and EL skills in preschoolers with ASD (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). Some studies also showed that FM skills were associated with language outcomes in siblings at high familial likelihood of autism (Hwang & Lee, 2022;LeBarton & Iverson, 2013). ...
... (VR, FM, and SA; see Figure 3). Our results are in line with previous studies pointing toward the role of early developmental difficulties in the emergence of language delays in ASD, for example, early motor (Godel et al., 2023;Hwang & Lee, 2022;LeBarton & Iverson, 2013) and early VR delays (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). Moreover, we found that the participation in an early intervention program (individualized ESDM for 2 years, 15-20 h per week) was moderating the language profile attribution, with higher levels of LU children who received the ESDM compared to MV participants. ...
Both expressive and receptive language difficulties in autism emerge early and significantly have an impact on social functioning and quality of life. Despite their wide heterogeneity, autistic language abilities can be stratified into three distinct profiles. Language unimpaired exhibit near-typical verbal performance, language impaired show significant alterations in language structure, and minimally verbal display limited verbal abilities. However, little is known about the early trajectories and moderators specific to each profile. Here, we used a longitudinal sample of 286 preschoolers with autism and 85 typically developing (aged 1.5–5.7 years old), yielding 1164 visits. Our cluster analysis replicated the three well-established autistic language profiles (language unimpaired, n = 86; language impaired, n = 85; minimally verbal, n = 44) and revealed their specific early trajectories in expressive vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics. At age 2.4, non-verbal cognition moderated the participants’ attribution to each language profile. Moreover, early stereotyped language specifically moderated the later verbal performance of language unimpaired participants, while the language outcome of language impaired participants was moderated by early intensive behavioral intervention. In conclusion, we provided a fine-grained description of language acquisition trajectories and moderators of autistic language profiles in a longitudinal sample exposed to French language, paving the way toward personalized medicine to autistic language difficulties.
Lay Abstract
Language development can greatly vary among autistic children. Children who struggle with language acquisition often face many challenges and experience lower quality of life. However, little is known about the early language trajectories of autistic preschoolers and their moderators. Autistic language can be stratified into three profiles. Language unimpaired experience little to no language difficulties; language impaired show significant difficulties in language; minimally verbal never develop functional language. In this study, we used a longitudinal sample of preschoolers with autism and with typical development (aged 1.5–5.7 years). We replicated the three language profiles through a data-driven approach. We also found that different factors modulated the language outcome within each group. For instance, non-verbal cognition at age 2.4 moderated the participants’ attribution to each language profile. Moreover, early intervention moderated verbal outcome in the language impaired profile. In conclusion, we provided a detailed description of how autistic preschoolers acquire language, and what factors might influence their trajectories. Our findings could inspire more personalized intervention for early autistic language difficulties.
... T-scores from the Visual Reception scale (mean of 50, standard deviation of 10) were utilized as our proxy measure of nonverbal spatial cognition. This scale has been used previously as a measure of spatial cognition in autistic preschoolers (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). Items in this scale probe skills across the visuospatial domain, tapping into underlying conceptual knowledge of spatial terms and relations and demonstration of spatial awareness. ...
... Therefore, it is also conceivable that during this stage of development in ASD, earlier growth in spatial cognition (i.e., Casasola 2018) could shape spatial language, or that bidirectional effects between these domains could interact over time. A previous study examining the relationships among fine motor skills, visuospatial cognition, and expressive and receptive language in young autistic children concluded that visuospatial cognition mediated the relationship between fine motor development and later expressive and receptive language, suggesting cognition-language directionality for autistic children at this age (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). Further research will be necessary to establish the nature of children (Cartmill et al., 2010;Pruden et al., 2011;Pruden & Levine, 2017) and suggests that autistic children as a group demonstrate the ability to pick up on spatial language used by their parents and incorporate it into their own production during dyadic interactions. ...
Purpose:
ASD is associated with relative strengths in the visuospatial domain but varying abilities in the linguistic domain. Previous studies suggest parallels between spatial language and spatial cognition in older autistic individuals, but no research to date has examined this relationship in young autistic children. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the connection between children's spatial language production and nonverbal spatial cognition over time. We also examined two potential predictors of spatial language observed in previous literature, ASD symptom severity and parent spatial language input.
Methods:
In past work investigating spatial language in NT children of the same age, parent-child interactions have been a primary context for study. Therefore, in the present study, we analyzed transcripts of dyadic naturalistic play interactions between autistic children and their parents over three visits from age 30 to 66 months and administered standardized cognitive and ASD diagnostic assessments at each visit.
Results:
Spatial language production was related to nonverbal spatial cognition even when accounting for overall language production, though the strength of that relationship decreased over time. Parent spatial input (but not ASD severity) significantly predicted children's spatial language production over and above the effect of overall language production.
Conclusion:
Spatial language is associated with spatial cognition in young autistic children and appears to reflect the interaction of overall linguistic skills and nonverbal spatial cognitive ability regardless of autism severity. Parent-mediated interventions may be a promising context for increasing spatial language in autistic preschoolers.
... This could further escalate the lack of social connectedness in children with ASD due to reduced movement play and lack of opportunity to build friendships. These findings are in agreement with other smaller studies on relations between motor skills and social communication performance in children with ASD using standardized assessments of motor and social communication/social cognitive development as well as ASD severity (Macdonald et al., 2013a;Licari et al., 2019;Hellendoorn et al., 2015). ...
... In contrast to the burgeoning literature on motorlanguage relations, there are fewer studies on how visuomotor skills (e.g., ball and balance skills) may be specifically impaired in children with ASD compared to other diagnoses such as ADHD and specific language impairment (SLI) (Dowell et al., 2009;Bhat et al., 2010Bhat et al., , 2018Whyatt & Craig, 2012;Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Ament et al., 2014;McPhillips et al., 2014;Macdonald et al., 2014). McPhillips et al. (2014) reported greater associations between visuomotor and language impairments in children with ASD than those with specific language impairments. ...
Motor impairments are pervasive and persistent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) throughout childhood and adolescence. Based on recent studies examining motor impairments in children with ASD between 5 and 15 years (i.e., SPARK study sample), 87–88% of this population is at‐risk for a motor impairment, these problems persisted until 15 years, and related to their core (social communication skills and repetitive behaviors [RBs]) and comorbid (language, cognitive, and functional) impairments. Persistent motor impairments extending into adolescence/adulthood could negatively impact their independent daily living skills, physical fitness/activity levels, and physical/mental health. While multiple studies have examined relations between motor dimensions and core/comorbid impairments in young children with ASD, few studies have examined such relations in school‐age children/adolescents with ASD. This paper conducts a further multidimensional study of which motor domains (i.e., gross‐motor including visuo‐motor or multilimb coordination/planning, fine motor [FM] or general coordination [GC] skills) best distinguish subgroups of school‐age children/adolescents with ASD and help predict core and comorbid impairments after accounting for age and sex. Visuomotor, FM and certain GC skills were better at explaining variations in/predicting social communication impairments whereas FM skills were slightly better at explaining variations in/predicting RB severity. Multilimb coordination/planning and FM skills explained variations in/predicted cognitive delays whereas visuomotor and FM skills explained variations in and better predicted language delays. All three motor dimensions explained variations in/predicted functional delays. This study provides further evidence for inclusion of motor impairments within the ASD definition (criteria or specifiers).
Lay Summary
Gross‐motor skills were related to social communication and functional delays of children with ASD (visuomotor skills related to language delays and multilimb coordination/planning skills related to cognitive delays). Fine‐motor skills were related to repetitive behavior severity, language, cognitive, and functional delays in ASD. Diagnosticians should recommend systematic motor screening, further evaluations, and treatments for children at‐risk for and diagnosed with ASD. Motor advocacy and enhanced public/clinical community awareness is needed to fulfill the unmet motor needs of children with ASD.
... Object exploration, facial expressions, gestures, eye movements and vocalizations are some of the early tools for infants' communication and language learning (Tamis-LeMonda, Kuchirko, & Tafuro, 2013). Fine motor abilities are related to word comprehension through manual exploration (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). Social cues, the quality of parental input, communication quality and lexical diversity in the input are associated with children's vocabulary learning (e.g., Bergelson & Swingley, 2013;Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015;Jones & Rowland, 2017;Rowe, 2012;Rowe, Leech, & Cabrera, 2017;Yurovsky & Frank, 2017). ...
... Our findings show that early fine motor abilities are associated with object word comprehension around 2 years of age, after controlling children's early word comprehension abilities at 14 months. These results are in line with T A B L E 1 Descriptive statistics of participants and age-controlled sex differences: sample sizes (n), Means, SDs, ranges, F, p, and partial eta-squared (η 2 p) values for ANCOVAs previous studies conducted with both typical and atypical populations (Alcock & Krawczyk, 2010;Hellendoorn et al., 2015;LeBarton & Iverson, 2013;Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2013;West & Iverson, 2017) and expanded them with earlier ages (14 months for fine motor abilities, 25 months for word comprehension) and for specific word types (object words). Motor abilities contribute exploration of objects, which facilitate word learning in early childhood Libertus & Violi, 2016). ...
Object word learning can be based on infant‐related factors such as their manual actions and socio‐linguistic factors such as parental input. Specific input for spatial features (i.e., size, shape, features of objects) can be related to object word comprehension in early vocabulary development. In a longitudinal study, we investigated whether fine motor abilities at 14 months and parental input for spatial features at 19 months predicted object word comprehension at 25 months. Twenty‐seven Turkish‐learning children were tested at three time points (Time 1: Mage = 14.4 months, Time 2: Mage = 18.6 months, Time 3: Mage = 25 months). We measured word comprehension through the parental report and fine motor abilities with Mullen at Time 1. We used a puzzle play session to assess parental input for spatial features at Time 2 and a standardized receptive vocabulary test at Time 3. We found that fine motor abilities were related to object word comprehension. However, parental input for spatial features at 19 months predicted object word comprehension at 25 months beyond fine motor abilities at 14 months. Early fine motor abilities and using different words for spatial features may foster infants' visual experiences in play and exploration episodes, leading to better object word learning.
... From a clinical viewpoint, it is interesting to view our findings in light of object exploration. A number of researchers have found compelling evidence linking object exploration and communicative and language development in typically developing children (Ruddy and Bornstein, 1982), autistic children (Hellendorn et al., 2015), children with developmental delays (Hellendorn et al., 2015) and preterm infants (Zuccarini et al., 2018). The findings underline the functionalistic viewpoint in children, as very early object interaction seems to be essential for conceptual and linguistic knowledge. ...
... From a clinical viewpoint, it is interesting to view our findings in light of object exploration. A number of researchers have found compelling evidence linking object exploration and communicative and language development in typically developing children (Ruddy and Bornstein, 1982), autistic children (Hellendorn et al., 2015), children with developmental delays (Hellendorn et al., 2015) and preterm infants (Zuccarini et al., 2018). The findings underline the functionalistic viewpoint in children, as very early object interaction seems to be essential for conceptual and linguistic knowledge. ...
Children’s fine motor skills (FMS) link to cognitive development, however, research on their involvement in language processing, also with adults, is scarce. Lexical items are processed differently depending on the degree of sensorimotor information inherent in the words’ meanings, such as whether these imply a body-object interaction (BOI) or a body-part association (i.e., hand, arm, mouth, foot). Accordingly, three studies examined whether lexical processing was affected by FMS, BOIness, and body-part associations in children (study 1, n = 77) and adults (study 2, n = 80; study 3, n = 71). Analyses showed a differential link between FMS and lexical processing as a function of age. Whereas response latencies indicated that children’s FMS were associated with “hand” words, adults’ FMS linked to the broader concept of BOI. Findings have implications for shared activation theories positing that FMS support lexical processing.
... This process provides information on the timing and intent of the other person's movements and facilitates the learning of social-communication behaviors through imitation, interpreting others' social-communication behaviors, and understanding the dynamics of reciprocal social interaction. Given that sensorimotor deficits are some of the earliest indicators of atypical development in ASD, it is possible that they contribute to later deficits in social interaction and communication [65][66][67][68]. Future studies that specifically characterize social-communication traits and their relation to visual motor and motor memory development in autism will be important for elucidating these mechanisms. ...
Background
Autistic individuals show deficits in sustained fine motor control which are associated with an over-reliance on visual feedback. Motor memory deficits also have been reported during sustained fine motor control in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The development of motor memory and visuomotor feedback processes contributing to sustained motor control issues in ASD are not known. The present study aimed to characterize age-related changes in visual feedback and motor memory processes contributing to sustained fine motor control issues in ASD.
Methods
Fifty-four autistic participants and 31 neurotypical (NT) controls ages 10–25 years completed visually guided and memory guided sustained precision gripping tests by pressing on force sensors with their dominant hand index finger and thumb. For visually guided trials, participants viewed a stationary target bar and a force bar that moved upwards with increased force for 15s. During memory guided trials, the force bar was visible for 3s, after which participants attempted to maintain their force output without visual feedback for another 12s. To assess visual feedback processing, force accuracy, variability (standard deviation), and regularity (sample entropy) were examined. To assess motor memory, force decay latency, slope, and magnitude were examined during epochs without visual feedback.
Results
Relative to NT controls, autistic individuals showed a greater magnitude and a trend for a steeper slope of force decay during memory guided trials. Across conditions, the ASD group showed reduced force accuracy (β = 0.41, R² = 0.043, t79.3=2.36, p = .021) and greater force variability (β=-2.16, R² = 0.143, t77.1=-4.04, p = .0001) and regularity (β=-0.52, R² = 0.021, t77.4=-2.21, p = .030) relative to NT controls at younger ages, but these differences normalized by adolescence (age x group interactions). Lower force accuracy and greater force variability during visually guided trials and steeper decay slope during memory guided trials were associated with overall autism severity.
Conclusions
Our findings that autistic individuals show a greater magnitude and tendency for a greater rate of force decay than NT individuals following the removal of visual feedback indicate that motor memory deficits contribute to fine motor control issues in ASD. Findings that sensorimotor differences in ASD were specific to younger ages suggest delayed development across multiple motor control processes.
... Their important involvement in numerous daily and motor activities has been extensively demonstrated (Cameron et al., 2016). In addition, different studies have highlighted the crucial role of motor skills in constraining and guiding the development of visual-perceptual (Corbetta et al., 2000) and visuospatial skills (Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Soska et al., 2010). ...
... Lebih lanjut, peneliti ilmu saraf telah menetapkan hubungan yang jelas antara keterampilan motorik, sosialemosional, dan kognitif [18]. Jaringan saraf dan jalur dalam sistem saraf pusat untuk perkembangan motorik, sosial-emosional, dan kognitif membentuk struktur yang kompleks dan tumpang tindih secara substansial. ...
Gross motor skills training on cognitive function in early primary schoolBackground: Low gross motor skills are associated with low physical activity in preschool and elementary school children. Children's gross motor skills are correlated with obesity and contribute to physical activity participation and physical, social, and cognitive growth.Objective: This study aims to determine the effect of gross motor skills training intervention on the cognitive function of early elementary school children.Methods: A quasi-experimental study with a one-group pretest-posttest with a control design. The study involved first-year children from two elementary schools in Pleret, Bantul, DIY, with a total of 90 participants (49 boys, 41 girls) and a mean age of 7 years. The intervention consisted of motor skills training, including obstacle courses and walking on a balance beam, with each session lasting 15 minutes and conducted once a week for nine weeks. Cognitive function in terms of memory and attention abilities was assessed using the Stroop test (Stroop color and word test) and the digit span test (forward and backward)—data analysis using paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test.Results: The study's results indicated a significant difference in the mean scores of the Stroop test for both the intervention and control groups and the digit span test for the intervention group. The findings suggested that motor skills training intervention significantly positively affected children's cognitive function, particularly with the Stroop test.Conclusions: Gross motor skill training can enhance the cognitive function of children aged 6-7. Motor skill instruction should be incorporated into preschool and early elementary school programs to help narrow the academic achievement gap.
... This process provides information on the timing and intent of the other person's movements and facilitates the learning of social-communication behaviors through imitation, interpreting others' socialcommunication behaviors, and understanding the dynamics of reciprocal social interaction. Given that sensorimotor de cits are some of the earliest indicators of atypical development in ASD, it is possible that they contribute to later de cits in social interaction and communication (73)(74)(75). ...
Background
Autistic individuals show deficits in sustained fine motor control which are associated with an over-reliance on visual feedback. Motor memory deficits also have been reported during sustained fine motor control in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The development of motor memory and visuomotor feedback processes contributing to sustained motor control issues in ASD are not known. The present study aimed to characterize age-related changes in visual feedback and motor memory processes contributing to sustained fine motor control issues in ASD.
Methods
Fifty-four autistic participants and 31 neurotypical (NT) controls ages 10–25 years completed visually guided and memory guided sustained precision gripping tests by pressing on force sensors with their dominant hand index finger and thumb. For visually guided trials, participants viewed a stationary target bar and a force bar that moved upwards with increased force for 15s. During memory guided trials, the force bar was visible for 3s, after which participants attempted to maintain their force output without visual feedback for another 12s. To assess visual feedback processing, force accuracy, variability (standard deviation), and regularity (sample entropy) were examined. To assess motor memory, force decay latency, slope, and magnitude were examined during epochs without visual feedback.
Results
Relative to NT controls, autistic individuals showed a greater magnitude and steeper slope of force decay during memory guided trials. Across conditions, the ASD group showed reduced force accuracy (β = .41, R² = 0.043, t79.3=2.36, p = 0.021) and greater force variability (β=-2.16, R² = .143, t77.1=-4.04, p = 0.0001) and regularity (β=-.52, R² = .021, t77.4=-2.21, p = 0.030) relative to controls at younger ages, but these differences normalized by adolescence (age x group interactions). Lower force accuracy and greater force variability during visually guided trials and steeper decay slope during memory guided trials were associated with overall autism severity.
Conclusions
Our findings that autistic individuals show a greater rate and magnitude of force decay than NT individuals following the removal of visual feedback indicate that motor memory deficits contribute to fine motor control issues in ASD. Findings that sensorimotor differences in ASD were specific to younger ages suggest delayed development across multiple motor control processes.
... Studies in children with intellectual NDD such as DS, WS, or PWS showed lower exploratory capacity, initiation, or cognitive planning [31,33,53,58]. In agreement with these results, some other authors have found that children with these syndromes [27][28][29] together with children with a heterogeneous group of disorders such as autism spectrum disorder or ADHD, perform worse in terms of spatial abilities [47,[82][83][84][85][86]. In children with ADHD-C, the short-term memory, which is needed to learn a new path, is more affected than the long-term memory [87]. ...
Background: Spatial navigation allows us to move around our environment, walking being the
most advanced form of human locomotion. Over the years, a range of tools has been developed to
study spatial navigation in children. Aim. To describe the role of locomotion during the assessment
of spatial navigation in children, providing an overview of the instruments available for
assessing spatial navigation in typically developing children and those with neurodevelopmental
disorders. Methods and Procedures. A systematic search was performed in six electronic databases
between December 2022 and February 2023, then updated in July 2023. Cross-sectional and
observational studies were included. Outcomes and results. Of the 3,385 studies screened, 47 were
selected for this review. Five studies described the influence of locomotion on spatial navigation,
and seven studies included locomotion as an explanatory variable in this area. Most studies
focused on children from five to twelve years old, whereas only nine were centred on infants and
preschoolers. Just eight assessed spatial abilities in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Conclusions and implications. Children with or at risk of neurodevelopmental impairments
show poorer spatial navigation skills. Having the choice to actively explore the space is more
important than the way they locomote. It is necessary to have tools to assess spatial navigation
during locomotion early in infancy.
... Implications of this study are that it extends the attachment theoretical framework on child development by examining infant temperament and attachmentrelated exploratory behaviors in relation to attachment quality. Prior research found that early exploration is related to language development (Hellendoorn et al., 2015) and spatial memory (Oudgenoeg-Paz et al., 2014) during childhood, and that attachment quality is important for socio-emotional development (Groh et al., 2017a). When predicting such child developmental outcomes across childhood, an integrative approach could provide a more comprehensive view on how heritable child characteristics, such as temperament, in addition to aspects of the parent-child relationship, shape developmental pathways across childhood. ...
The secure base phenomenon was ascribed to changes in exploration observed during Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), related to the quality of the attachment relationship. However, infant temperament was not taken into consideration. The current study aims to replicate Ainsworth’s findings regarding infant exploration and attachment quality during the SSP and extend the findings by examining the role of infant temperament. One hundred thirty-two mother-infant dyads participated in the SSP when infants were 12 months old. Video recordings were coded for attachment quality and for duration of locomotion, duration of engagement with toys, and quality of engagement with toys. Temperamental activity level and fear were assessed with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Results showed that—irrespective of infant temperament—infants with insecure-resistant attachment relationships engaged less with toys compared to infants with secure or insecure avoidant relationships, and these differences were amplified during separation from the mother. Duration of engagement with toys was thus a robust indicator of attachment-related infant exploratory behavior. Duration of locomotion increased in response to separation from the mother and decreased after reunion. This likely reflects a mix of exploratory and proximity seeking behavior, and was more affected by controlling for temperamental fear. For quality of engagement with toys, no associations with attachment and temperament were found. During the SSP, the manifestation of the secure base phenomenon depended on the combination of the type of exploratory behaviors and the quality of the attachment relationship, but also on infant temperament.
... These findings suggest that overall adaptability trajectories pertaining to self-care, community living, communication, and socialization were improved over time (24), while fine motor functions, as assessed by FMFM, were not. In contrast to gross motor skills, fine motor skills are highly correlated with daily living tasks, including cutlery use, dressing, writing, and drawing (25). Fine motor skills are also important for social adaptability and the development of both of them are associated with the cerebellum (26,27). ...
Background
The correlation of clinical characteristics of cerebral palsy (CP) and the magnetic resonance imaging classification system (MRICS) for (CP) is inconsistent. Specifically, the variance in rehabilitation potential across MRICS remains underexplored.
Aims
To investigate the clinical characteristics and potential for rehabilitation in children with CP based on MRICS.
Materials and methods
Children with CP admitted to the Department of Rehabilitation, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between 2017 and 2021 were included in the study. Qualified cases underwent a follow-up period of at least one year. The clinical characteristics of CP among different MRICS were analyzed, then the rehabilitation potential was explored by a retrospective cohort study.
Results
Among the 384 initially enrolled children, the male-to-female ratio was 2.3:1, and the median age of diagnosis was 6.5 months (interquartile range: 4–12). The most prevalent MRICS categorization was predominant white matter injury (40.6%), followed by miscellaneous (29.2%) and predominant gray matter injury (15.6%). For the predominant white matter injury and miscellaneous categories, spastic diplegia emerged as the leading subtype of CP, with incidences of 59.6% and 36.6%, respectively, while mixed CP (36.7%) was the most common type in children with predominant gray matter. Notably, 76.4% of children with predominant white matter injury were classified as levels I–III on the gross motor function classification system (GMFCS), indicating significantly less severity than other groups (χ2 = 12.438, p = 0.013). No significant difference across MRICS categories was observed for the manual ability classification system (MACS) (H = 8.176, p = 0.085). Rehabilitation potential regarding fine motor function and adaptability based on Gesell assessment was dependent on MRICS over the follow-up period. Children with normal MRI scans exhibited superior rehabilitation outcomes. Commencing rehabilitation at an earlier stage produced consistent and beneficial results in terms of fine motor function and adaptability across all MRICS categories. Moreover, participants below 2 years of age demonstrated enhanced rehabilitation potential regarding fine motor outcomes and adaptability within the MRICS framework.
Conclusion
MRICS displayed a significant association with clinical characteristics and rehabilitation efficacy in children with CP.
... Impaired motor development negatively impacts social cognition, communication, and participation in children with ASD [15][16][17]. Furthermore, impaired PC hinders the exploration of environment which affects the motor and social development [9,18]. It can also be the basis for social-communication impairments such as anxiety and social isolation in this population [9]. ...
Background: Postural control (PC) disturbances in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are associated with its severity. Varied sensorimotor interventions have been used for the management of these symptoms. However, there is a lack of a review elucidating all the available postural control interventions in ASD.
Research question: To comprehensively present the variety of interventions targeted at improving PC in ASD and to provide future research recommendations.
Methods: PubMed, SCOPUS, Embase, Cochrane, ScienceDirect and Web of Science databases were searched for publications examining the effects of PC targeting interventions in those with ASD. Included articles were in English, published after 2000 in the peer-reviewed journals with full text available and used intervention targeted at improving PC or balance with a predefined objective outcome measure for accessing PC or balance. Initial database search yielded 1022 studies and 21 articles were included in this review after screening.
Results: We identified diverse PC interventions including animal assisted therapies, karate/martial arts, aquatic exercises, virtual reality-based training, standard and customized exercises, and physical activity programs. The effect of long- and short-term interventions on PC improvement in children and adults with ASD is mixed. Future research should focus on undertaking randomized controlled trials with large sample size and participants with varying severity of ASD to improve generalizability of the study findings. The lack of population-specific, reliable, and validated motor outcome measures including neuro-imaging techniques should be addressed.
Significance: While many of the interventions improved PC in those with ASD, the sample size and methodological quality of the studies was highly variable. There are limited studies exploring the long-term effects of the interventions. Rigorous study methods with population-specific objective outcome measures are warranted to draw generalizable conclusions regarding the PC interventions in individuals with ASD.
Keywords: ASD; Autism spectrum disorder; Balance interventions; Postural control; Rehabilitation.
... It might be possible that the relation between motor skills and EF follow the same developmental timeframe and trajectory, regardless of the different contextual influences, such as geographical, cultural, and educational factors. While the exploratory nature of this study warrants future cross-cultural research, the current findings partially corroborate evidence from previous research on children with ASD in western countries (36,52,70). Schurink et al. (36) found significant relationships between manual dexterity, balance, and planning ability measured by objective assessments among children with PDD-NOS, a type of ASD, indicating that inferior motor skills performance is associated with poorer EF. ...
Objective
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parent ratings of motor skills and executive function (EF) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States and Taiwan.
Materials and method
One hundred and seventy-two parents/legal guardians of children (4–6 years and 11 months old) with ASD were recruited from two countries, Taiwan (n = 100) and the United States (n = 72). The parents or guardians of the child with ASD completed a questionnaire including demographic information, child’s motor skills (using Children Activity Scale – Parents, ChAS-P), and child’s EF (using Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory, CHEXI). A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to determine whether ChAS-P (total motor score, fine motor skills, and gross motor skill) was associated with CHEXI (total EF score, working memory, and inhibition), after controlling for covariates (i.e., age, gender, race, body mass index, whether children received physical activity or cognitive training, parental education level).
Results
Total motor skills, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills were significantly associated with EF in both working memory and inhibition as rated by parents in both countries (β = 0.21–0.57, p < 0.01), with the exception of a non-significant association between parent-rated total motor skills, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills, and inhibition among Taiwanese children with ASD. In addition, the associations between parent ratings of motor skills (i.e., fine motor and gross motor skills) and EF (i.e., working memory and inhibition) were similar between the two countries.
Conclusion
Positive associations with specific aspects of parent ratings of fine motor and gross motor skills and working memory and inhibition were found in children with ASD from both countries. These findings have implications for future interventions and programs focused on improving early motor skills and EF development for young children with ASD from Taiwan and the United States.
... Early motor skills have been associated with later RL skills in children with ASD (Hannant 2018). In addition, visuospatial cognition has been associated with later RL and EL skills in preschoolers with ASD (Hellendoorn et al. 2015). Some studies also showed that FM skills were associated with language outcomes in siblings at high familial-likelihood of autism (Hwang and Lee 2022; LeBarton and Iverson 2013). ...
Language difficulties in autism emerge early and significantly impact social functioning and quality of life. Despite their wide heterogeneity, autistic language abilities can be parsed into three distinct phenotypes. Language Unimpaired (LU) exhibit near-typical verbal performance, Language Impaired (LI) show significant alterations in language structure, and Minimally Verbal (MV) display limited verbal abilities. However, little is known about the early trajectories and moderators specific to each phenotype. Here, we used a longitudinal sample of 286 preschoolers with autism and 85 typically developing (aged 1.5–5.7 y.o.), yielding 1164 visits. Our cluster analysis replicated the three well-established autistic language phenotypes (LU, n = 86; LI, n = 85; MV, n = 44) and revealed their specific early trajectories. At age 2.5, LU could be identified by their higher general cognition compared to the other phenotypes, while MV were characterized by a major delay in non-verbal cognition. Moreover, the presence of early stereotyped language specifically predicted LU’s later verbal performance, while LI language outcome was improved by early behavioral intervention. In conclusion, we provided a fine-grained description of early trajectories and moderators of autistic language phenotypes in a longitudinal sample exposed to French language, paving the way toward personalized medicine to autistic language difficulties.
... Considerando que as competências motoras são necessárias para o desenvolvimento integral da criança, a dimensão motora deve ser estimulada de forma integrada com as dimensões cognitiva, social e emocional (Martínez--Moreno et al., 2020). Igualmente, na idade pré-escolar (três aos seis anos), 269 implementação nos domínios do desenvolvimento de competências mot socioemocionais das crianças com e sem PEA. a promoção de competências motoras, que estão na base da consciência e domínio do corpo, influenciam o número e o tipo de oportunidades de interação social tanto em crianças com desenvolvimento típico (DT), como atípico (Fountain et al., 2012, Hellendoorn et al., 2015Leonard & Hill, 2014). ...
... Choi et al. (2018) and Bal et al. (2020) found that fine motor skills during early infancy and childhood (6 months to 2 years) were predictive of children with ASD's future expressive language skills at 3 or 19 years of age even after controlling for visual reception skills. Visuomotor skills (e.g., ball, balance and fine-motor/manual dexterity skills) may be specifically affected in children with ASD compared to other diagnoses such as ADHD and specific language impairment (SLI) (Ament et al., 2014;Bhat et al., 2011;Green et al., 2009;Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Kaur et al., 2018;McPhillips et al., 2014;Whyatt & Craig, 2012). ...
A series of recent reports have shed light on the pervasive nature of motor impairments in children with ASD (Bhat, 2020, 2021, Bhat et al., 2022), underscoring the importance of providing ASD clinicians efficient and accurate tools for motor screening. The Developmental Coordination Disorder‐Questionnaire (DCD‐Q) is a widely used motor screening tool, yet scant evidence exists regarding its psychometric properties in children with ASD. In a recent Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of the 15‐item DCD‐Q in a large sample of children with ASD (SPARK study), we found a 5‐factor latent structure that identified unique motor impairments in a large sample of children with ASD (Bhat et al., 2022). In the current study, we extend this work by cross‐replicating the EFA findings of unique ASD‐related motor issues using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) in a new, more recent wave of children with ASD from the SPARK study (N = 9721). The fits and interpretability of 11 hypothesis‐driven CFA models, including 8 correlated‐factors, 1 second‐order, and 2 bifactor models were compared. Our findings supported the previous 5‐factor model with 2 gross motor subdomains, 1 fine motor domain (similar to the original DCD‐Q) and 2 general coordination subdomains. This model demonstrated acceptable fit in the new sample as well as superior fit compared to several other parsimonious correlated‐factors models. However, the second‐order and bifactor models fit slightly better and supported the presence of a general motor skills factor, although 38% of the common variance in the DCD‐Q items remained attributable to the 5 subdomains. Using one of the bifactor models, measurement invariance was also supported for DCD‐Q across sex, race, and co‐occurring conditions of language disorder and intellectual disability. Only partial invariance was supported when testing DCD‐Q scores across different age groups. These findings reveal a more complex dimensional picture of the DCD‐Q in children with ASD. Results suggest that the DCD‐Q can be used in two ways, total scores adequately assess general motor skills for brief screening and subdomain scores offer unique information on the multidimensional motor problems of children with ASD. If subdomain data are of interest, our findings call into question the practice of relying on 3 original subscales of the DCD‐Q when screening for ASD‐related motor difficulties, whereas 4 out of 5 subscale scores may better highlight domain‐specific motor problems. Future studies should continue to further validate DCD‐Q's ability to screen for multidimensional motor problems.
... In this sense, language scores both above and below the mean have been found in children with ASD (Gernsbacher, Morson & Grace, 2015). Some authors have pointed out disturbances and delays in both receptive and expressive language in ASD (e.g., Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Hudry et al., 2010), although others have found more difficulties in receptive vs. expressive skills (Hudry et al., 2010). Meanwhile, the meta-analysis conducted by Kwok, Brown, Smyth and Cardy (2015), which examined 74 studies about expressive and receptive language in ASD, concluded that both types of language skills are equally disrupted and that the differences between them are not clinically significant. ...
This study examines receptive-expressive language, gross-fine motor skills, and IQ abilities in 78 children, 43 children with an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (Sibs-ASD) and 35 children with an older sibling with typical development, ranging from 4 to 11 years of age. Depending on age, both groups were divided in preschool and school groups. The results show that more than 76% of Sibs-ASD performed at least one language and/or motor skill under 25th percentile. Significant differences were described at preschool stage in three aspects: grammatical comprehension, ball skills, and global motor skills. At school age, significant differences were found in two aspects: expressive language, and ball skills. Some differences seem to decrease over time; meanwhile others seem to increase; and others remain stable. Thus, it seems that vulnerability continues in unaffected Sibs-ASD and suggest that this population may benefit from continued screening and monitoring into the preschool and school-age stages.
... Our motor skills play an important role in developing our cognition and social functioning, according to the theory of embodied cognition (37). Hellendoorn (38) found that fine motor functioning in children with ASD was related to visuospatial cognition, object exploration, and social orientation, as well as to language development, and fine motor functioning aids preschool students in interacting with both the physical and social environment and improves visuospatial cognition, which in turn increases language development. Fine motor skills are also important because they are highly correlated with social skills, and hand motor skills directly affect living ability. ...
Objectives
Autism spectrum disorders(ASD)describe a wide range of pervasive developmental disorders by core symptoms including deficits in social communication and interaction, as well as restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behaviors. At the same time, some children with autism are accompanied by motor development disorder. Many studies have confirmed that the motor development impairment was significantly associated with the social problems associated with ASD. Thus, this study aimed to investigate how motor development affects social adaptability in children with ASD to provide references for early ASD intervention.
Materials and methods
The case data of children’s health care were selected in 2021. Motor development was assessed with the Developmental Behavior Assessment Scale for Children Aged 0–6 years. Social adaptability was measured using the Japanese S-M Social Living Skills Scale. Statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS 22.0 software package. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-test and logistic regression.
Results
A total of 198 cases comprising 140 boys (70.71%) and 58 girls (29.29%) were included, and the average age of participants was 3.40 ± 1.06 years, with 3.33 ± 1.18 years in the typical development (TD) children group and 3.46 ± 0.95 years in the ASD group. The social adaptability of 107 ASD children was abnormal, including 37 children (34.5%) with marginal, 48 children (44.9%) with mild, 17 children (15.9%) with moderate, and 5 children (4.7%) with severe. In 91 TD children, there were 51 children (56.04%) with normal social adaptability, 38 children (41.75%) with marginal, 2 children (2.19%) with mild, and nobody with moderate or severe. The ASD children had lower levels of developmental behavior than those of TD children, and the difference was statistically significant. The results of logistic regression showed that fine motor increased by 1 unit, and the OR value of one level decreased in social adaptability was 2.24 times (OR = e⁰.⁸⁰⁷ = 2.24).
Conclusion
In children with ASD, not only motor development is delayed, but also social adaptability is affected, and fine motor skill may be important for social adaptability.
... When the development of children at high risk for ASD is followed, children with early motor delays are more likely to have delays in communication (Bhat et al., 2011), expressive language (Choi et al., 2018;LeBarton & Iverson, 2013;LeBarton & Landa, 2019), and pragmatic language (Stevenson, Lindley, & Murlo, 2017) and are more likely to receive an ASD diagnosis (LeBarton & Landa, 2019). Research suggests that early fine motor skills may have a stronger predictive value than gross motor skills at predicting a 36-month severity score on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS; Iverson et al., 2019) and expressive language delays (Choi et al., 2018;Hellendoorn et al., 2015;LeBarton & Iverson, 2013;Licari et al., 2021). ...
The cardinal features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are recognized to include impairments in communication, social interactions, and restricted, repetitive behaviors and stereotyped interests. However, many children with ASD also have motor activity limitations that are often overlooked. The purpose of this review is to summarize the literature on neuromotor impairment and motor activity limitation in children with ASD. A literature search was conducted of citations from 1998 through 2021 using PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. Twenty-three search terms were used to encompass diverse articles focused on children with autism and motor activity. The search resulted in 78 articles that included the search terms and were also consistent with the aims of this literature review. The potential significance of motor activity limitations on development from an early age is explored and recommendations are offered for more holistic surveillance in children with ASD, which can facilitate early access to services when indicated.
... Os resultados sustentam a hipótese de uma interação entre perceção tátil, gesto e aquisição da palavra (13). No jardim de infância, é importante articular atividades de exploração de objetos, de expressão motora e de desenvolvimento da linguagem, principalmente como estratégia recuperativa e remediativa para crianças com problemas na linguagem falada (12,13,15). ...
In this paper, we show an analyze the relationship between tactile perception, simulation of instrument use and word in children aged from 2 to 5 years. The child was shown 11 instruments from her/his daily live, asked (i) what they were (word), (ii) to pretend to use them (gesture), and (iii) to identify them tactically. The 2-year-old children had more morphological deviations. With age, children made more tactile identifications. Children with more subextension and morphological deviations performed fewer gestures and made fewer tactile identifications. Children with more oral identifications were the ones with more tactile identifications. Children with more tactile identifications were the ones with more gestures of the “incorporation” type. There is an abrupt transition from 2 to 3 years in terms of quality and quantity of words. Tactile identification and gestures are associated with better diction and greater verbal lexicon. Both are mainly associated
with the gesture of “incorporation”. The results support the hypothesis of an interaction between tactile perception, gesture and word acquisition.
... Researchers have established clear links among social, communication, and motor skills (Bar-Haim & Bart, 2006;Craig et al., 2018;Dadgar et al., 2017;Fournier et al., 2010;Hellendoorn et al., 2015). The neural networks and pathways in the central nervous system for social, communication, and motor development overlap substantially. ...
Many students with autism have difficulties engaging with their classroom environments and forming friendships, which are mostly affected by deficits in social, communication, and motor skills. The Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS, 2000) data set was used, focusing on elementary age students with autism, to explore the longitudinal relationships between social, communication, and motor skills and the mediating role of motor skills in between communication and social skills by using structural equational modeling analyses. Results show that (a) motor skills mediate the relationship between communication and social skills in elementary school, (b) there are significant longitudinal relationships among these skills in elementary school. Increased motor skills may improve social skills for students with autism in elementary school.
... Despite motor difficulties are not a diagnostic criterion, they are presented in 50 to 73% of children with ASD (Leonard & Hill, 2014;Matson et al., 2011). Motor proficiency is an important indicator of developmental trajectories during preschool period (Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Peyre et al., 2019) and is clinically and functionally relevant when assessing ASD (Nobile et al., 2018;Zampella et al., 2021). Comparing with the children with typical development, the difficulties in motor proficiency/performance may due to psychomotor difficulties observed in children with ASD such as hypotonia (Paquet et al., 2016a(Paquet et al., , b, 2019Renzo et al., 2017), static and dynamic balance difficulties, postural control deficits (Nobile et al., 2018;Paquet et al., 2015Paquet et al., , 2019Stins et al., 2015), fine and gross motor planning and coordination difficulties (Fournier et al., 2010;Matson et al., 2011;Nobile et al., 2018;Paquet et al., 2016a, b), dysfunctions in laterality (Paquet et al., 2017), difficulties in imitation, spatial orientation, and symbolic play (Renzo et al., 2017;Lidstone & Mostofsky, 2021). ...
Motor difficulties are present in 50–73% of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and are associated with social difficulties. This review aims to synthesize the literature regarding psychomotor therapist use of psychomotor intervention for 3- to 6-year preschool children with ASD. A systematic search of electronic of six databases and other electronic journals was conducted without time limitation. Out of 1351 studies, 14 meet the inclusion criteria. Studies were summarized in terms of participant characteristics, study design, outcomes measures, intervention characteristics, target skills, and outcomes. Outcomes in psychomotor and social development and peer interaction and verbal communication domains were identified. This review adds insights for future research and revealed critical considerations of psychomotor interventions with children with ASD.
... Deficits in sensorimotor control in ASD also are associated with poorer outcomes in cognition, daily living skills, and social and language ability. Fine motor behaviors in particular appear to be consistently affected in infants with ASD and associated with reduced visuospatial cognition, exploratory behavior, and social orienting [32]. Development of fine motor control likely is especially central to developmental abilities due to its involvement in multiple aspects of daily function, including the abilities to grasp and manipulate objects and explore the environment-critical skills for early language and social development. ...
Background
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show deficits processing sensory feedback to reactively adjust ongoing motor behaviors. Atypical reliance on visual and somatosensory feedback each have been reported during motor behaviors in ASD suggesting that impairments are not specific to one sensory domain but may instead reflect a deficit in multisensory processing, resulting in reliance on unimodal feedback. The present study tested this hypothesis by examining motor behavior across different visual and somatosensory feedback conditions during a visually guided precision grip force test.
Methods
Participants with ASD ( N = 43) and age-matched typically developing (TD) controls ( N = 23), ages 10–20 years, completed a test of precision gripping. They pressed on force transducers with their index finger and thumb while receiving visual feedback on a computer screen in the form of a horizontal bar that moved upwards with increased force. They were instructed to press so that the bar reached the level of a static target bar and then to hold their grip force as steadily as possible. Visual feedback was manipulated by changing the gain of the force bar. Somatosensory feedback was manipulated by applying 80 Hz tendon vibration at the wrist to disrupt the somatosensory percept. Force variability (standard deviation) and irregularity (sample entropy) were examined using multilevel linear models.
Results
While TD controls showed increased force variability with the tendon vibration on compared to off, individuals with ASD showed similar levels of force variability across tendon vibration conditions. Individuals with ASD showed stronger age-associated reductions in force variability relative to controls across conditions. The ASD group also showed greater age-associated increases in force irregularity relative to controls, especially at higher gain levels and when the tendon vibrator was turned on.
Conclusions
Our findings that disrupting somatosensory feedback did not contribute to changes in force variability or regularity among individuals with ASD suggests a reduced ability to integrate somatosensory feedback information to guide ongoing precision manual motor behavior. We also document stronger age-associated gains in force control in ASD relative to TD suggesting delayed development of multisensory feedback control of motor behavior.
... Although the sample size of the study was somewhat small, the bootstrapping method in which many resamples were generated from the sample data helped us to circumvent the power problem (Preacher & Hayes, 2004). Previous studies also examined the mediator role of different variables in the relationship of maternal and child characteristics to mother-child interactions with small sample sizes (e.g., Hellendoorn et al., 2015;Hoff, 2003;Huttenlocher, Waterfall, Vasilyeva, Vevea, & Hedges, 2010;Taylor, Donovan, Miles, & Leavitt, 2009). ...
Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly related to parental behaviors and the quality of parent-child interactions. We examined whether through maternal behaviors, SES is linked to joint attention (JA), an important form of parent-child interactions predicting language development. At 12 months, 50 mother-infant dyads were video-recorded during 5-min free play. We coded for maternal behaviors (sensitivity, cognitive stimulation, positive affect, negative affect, control) and JA characteristics (frequency, duration, initiated by maternal following/ directing, passive/coordinated, terminated by mother/infant). Mediation analyses showed that higher-SES mothers were more sensitive, less controlling, provided more cognitive stimulation, and displayed more positive affect resulting in JA interactions of higher quality (e.g., initiated by maternal following rather than directing infant's attention) and quantity (i.e., more time spent in JA). These findings contribute to current literature by revealing maternal behaviors as a mediator between SES and mother-infant JA interactions.
... Neuroscience researchers have established clear links among motor, SE, and cognitive skills (Hellendoorn et al., 2015). The neural networks and pathways in the central nervous system for motor, SE, and cognitive development overlap substantially. ...
Preschoolers and kindergarteners demonstrate rapid growth and change in motor skills, socio-emotional (SE) skills, and academic performance. Data on 250 children with disabilities (CWD) and 250 typically developing children (TDC) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set were analyzed to explore the relation between motor skills, SE skills and academic performance for children with and without disabilities. The ECLS-B data set is the first study to follow children from birth through kindergarten entry, collecting data on thier early development. The current study utilized descriptive and regression analyses (survey frequency, mean, and regression) were conducted using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) version 9.2 (SAS Institute, 2008). Results indicated that both fine and gross motor skills make significant contributions to SE skills in CWD at both preschool and kindergarten and in TDC at preschool only. A significant correlation between fine and gross motor skills and academic performance was found for CWD and TDC in preschool and kindergarten. These findings indicated that an increased emphasis on the development of fine and gross motor skills during the preschool years may benefit the development of SE skills and academic performance for CWD. Results sheds light on the importance of including motor interventions as part of early childhood education programs delivered to CWD to narrow the achievement gap and ideally result in early learning success.
... Our results may have implications for understanding how children with ASD experience and learn about the world. Exploration is linked to developmental outcomes-more typical object play is linked to better cognitive and language abilities in both groups 4,[8][9][10][11]56,57 . Higher levels of object play during infancy were significantly positively correlated with later functional language skills in children with ASD 57 . ...
Multimodal exploration of objects during toy play is important for a child’s development and is suggested to be abnormal in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to either atypical attention or atypical action. However, little is known about how children with ASD coordinate their visual attention and manual actions during toy play. The current study aims to understand if and in what ways children with ASD generate exploratory behaviors to toys in natural, unconstrained contexts by utilizing head-mounted eye tracking to quantify moment-by-moment attention. We found no differences in how 24- to 48-mo children with and without ASD distribute their visual attention, generate manual action, or coordinate their visual and manual behaviors during toy play with a parent. Our findings suggest an intact ability and willingness of children with ASD to explore toys and suggest that context is important when studying child behavior.
... Affordances are properties of the environment but interact with individual capabilities (Warren, 1984). Thus, they are both objective (linked to the environment) and subjective (related to the individual), and perceiving different affordances may cause a failure in interpersonal motor coordination (Cook, 2016;Hellendoorn et al., 2015). ...
Background
Joint actions, described as a form of social interaction in which individuals coordinate their actions in space and time to bring about a change in the environment, rely on sensory-motor processes that play a role in the development of social skills. Two brain networks, associated with “mirroring” and “mentalizing”, are engaged during these actions: the mirror neuron and the theory of mind systems. People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed impairment in interpersonal coordination during joint actions. Studying joint action coordination in ASD will contribute to clarify the interplay between sensory-motor and social processes throughout development and the interactions between the brain and the behavior.
Method
This review focused on empirical studies that reported behavioral and kinematic findings related to joint action coordination in people with ASD.
Results
Literature on mechanisms involved in the joint action coordination impairment in ASD is still limited. Data are controversial. Different key-components of joint action coordination may be impaired, such as cooperative behavior, temporal coordination, and motor planning.
Conclusions
Interpersonal coordination during joint actions relies on early sensory-motor processes that have a key role in guiding social development. Early intervention targeting the sensory-motor processes involved in the development of joint action coordination could positively support social skills.
School-going individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face challenges in educational settings, including reduced academic performance, motor- and social skills. Embodied cognition (EC), which emphasises the significant role of the body in human cognition, encompasses aspects such as motor control, non-verbal communication, and memory. Within an educational context, engaging in EC improves academic performance and emotions in typically developing children. While a theoretical framework of EC in ASD is established, a gap remains in understanding its specific association with educational contexts for these individuals. The current rapid review aims to investigate the relationship between EC, well-being, and academic performances in school-aged autistic individuals. Building on Eigsti’s (2013) review, current research provides theoretical insights into various aspects and implementations of EC in ASD within an educational setting. Findings suggest that EC implementations, which require physical actions from the body, show beneficial effects in ASD, but may be an obstacle because of dual-task challenges. These insights are valuable for practitioners and policymakers to develop and implement appropriate strategies in education for autistic individuals.
The full manuscript has been published by the European Journal of Special Needs Education and is available on www.tandfonline.com -- https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2024.2382624
RESUMO: No contexto educacional, práticas linguísticas e sociais precisam ser ressignificadas com a intenção de compreender os desdobramentos das ações interativas de sujeitos neurotípicos e daqueles neuroatípicos. Sob a ótica do funcionamento multimodal, os gestos são essenciais para promoção da interação e da linguagem de crianças autistas. Desse modo, como objetivo geral do trabalho, pretendemos analisar a produção gestual de duas crianças autistas no processo de aquisição da linguagem. Especificamente, buscamos refletir sobre as implicações dos resultados do estudo no contexto escolar e identificar os papéis que podem ser desempenhados pelos gestos. Para fundamentação teórica, dialogamos com Kendon (1988), McNeill (1992, 2006), Cavalcante (2018) e outros autores que defendem a perspectiva multimodal da linguagem, na qual gesto e produção vocal compõem uma mesma matriz de significação. O trabalho é de natureza qualitativa e caracteriza-se enquanto um estudo de caso. Para o estudo, trabalhamos com duas crianças autistas do sexo masculino. Nas análises, utilizamos o Eudico Language Annotator como software de transcrição. Nos resultados, observamos produções variadas de gestos pelas crianças e ricas contribuições que as dimensões gestuais podem desempenhar no contexto interativo e, consequentemente, no contexto de ensino-aprendizagem, abrigando papéis diversificados, como o de ênfase do discurso oral e negação.
An emerging body of literature suggests that early motor skills may be a key predictor of language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, characteristics of subject groups, targeted skill areas and their assessment tools, and methodological approaches significantly vary across existing studies. This scoping review aimed to map out the associative nature of motor and language skills among children with ASD according to different age groups and ancillary attributes by investigating empirical studies published in the past 20 years. We searched research articles published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2000 and December 2020 using PsycINFO, PubMed, and ERIC. A total of 11 studies were selected and analysed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist. Available evidence indicates that despite a lack of agreement among available instruments for skills assessments, there exists a positive relationship between motor and language development in that early motor skills predict the rate of both receptive and expressive language development in children with ASD. More studies on such relationship in later childhood and adolescence are warranted to provide practical implications of motor and/or language delay in children with ASD and further timely intervention development.
Käsitepari kestävä käsityö on syntynyt käsityön vastaukseksi kestävän kehityksen haasteisiin. Tässä teoreettisessa kirjallisuuskatsauksessa tarkastelemme käsityötä mahdollisuutena kestävään kädenjälkeen. Ensin pohjustamme keskustelua kirjallisuuden avulla, minkä jälkeen syvennymme kestävän käsityön käsitteeseen sekä avaamme näkökulmia kestävään käsityöhön perusopetuksen käsityössä. Kestävän käsityön teoreettisessa mallissa kuvataan käsityötä toimintana, tuotteena ja aineettomana käsityönä. Kestävää käsityötä toimintana kuvataan käsityötietoa syventävänä sekä arvoja ja asenteita muokkaavana taitona. Kestävä käsityötuote puolestaan huomioi materiaalien, elinkaaren, tekniikan, designin, laadun, esteettisyyden, tarpeen ja tuotesuhteen. Aineeton käsityö nivoo kestävyyden ympäristön lisäksi kulttuuriin sekä sosiaaliseen, taloudelliseen, psykologiseen, yhteiskunnalliseen, filosofiseen ja kommunikatiiviseen näkökulmaan. Nämä elementit toimivat lomittain yhdessä muotoillen ympäristöä, konkreettisia tuotteita sekä tekoja kestäväksi ekologiseksi kädenjäljeksi, mikä tulisi olla lähtökohtana myös käsityönopetuksessa kaikilla koulutusasteilla. Ecological handprint in craft Abstract The concept of sustainable craft is crafts’ response to sustainability. This theoretical article views the craft's potential to be an ecological handprint. We first view discussion through literature, followed by opening the concept of sustainable craft and viewpoint to sustainable craft education. The theoretical model concretizes the systemic nature of sustainable craft as practice, product, and immaterial craft. Sustainable craft as practice is described as deepening craft knowledge and as a skill shaping the values and attitudes of craft. Sustainable craft products consider the materials, life cycle, technique, design, quality, aesthetics, need, and product relationship. Immaterial craft combines sustainability to the environment, cultural, social, economic, psychologic, societal, philosophical, and communicational aspects. These elements work together shaping the environment, concrete product, and actions towards sustainability with an ecological handprint that could be utilized in craft education. Keywords: Immaterial craft, sustainable development, craft product, craft skill, ecological handprint
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulty with coordinated fine motor skills, but the degree of difficulty significantly varies from person to person. To elucidate the cause of this diversity, we monitored brain activity during fine movement tasks (tying bowknots) by near-infrared spectroscopy in 17 adults with ASD and 18 adults with typical development matched for age, gender, and intelligence quotient (IQ). We also examined the relationship between brain activation and developmental characteristics, including ASD severity, using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient and the Multi-dimensional Scale for Pervasive Developmental Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Although participants in the ASD group did not show significant clumsiness, their right prefrontal cortexes were relatively less activated, particularly in individuals with poor social skills and inattention. Our study indicates that individuals with ASD traits may use different strategies when performing fine movements; that is, they less use the brain areas responsible for processing visual image or planning behaviors.
This chapter introduces the concept of embodied cognition that is the base for embodied choices. Therefore, this chapter summarizes different perspectives of how our bodies and movements shape our thinking. Examples are given from language and other abstract concepts to concrete movement behaviors and how they shape our thoughts. One famous thought experiment from Searle “The Chinese room” will be used to illustrate what the limits are to observe intelligent behavior by observation and explain it by knowledge. Developments in robotics and human experiments will serve as examples on how using movement experiences can produce behavior that is based on those experiences.
This chapter covers first time choices, for example, the first time voting a political party or making climate choices. As studies show that city dwellers have an increased risk for developing anxiety or mood disorders compared with people living in less urban areas, action should be taken. Cities and local communities need to fight for more green areas and provide ways to support city dwellers to experience nature. Talking about moral embodied choices, the term “to wash one’s hands off responsibility” is shown to be not just metaphoric. But, studies show that the physical act of washing hands seems to reduce or even remove the feeling associated with moral transgression. This chapter will provide a general principle of first time choices in which a person needs to delay choice to gain more information if possible.
This chapter deals with the question, why body conditions and the environment influence our choices. Therefore this chapter summarizes plenty of research and combines it with own experiences. One famous study cited is the one by Strack and colleagues [12] concerning the facial feedback effect: Subjects had to rate the funniness of cartoons which either a pen between their lips or their teeth. Depending on the condition, the movement facilitated either a smile or a neutral expression which transferred to the ratings of the cartoons. Also, the role of gut feelings is discussed again, as research shows that the state of hunger may influence judges’ decisions at the court and this connection therefore should not the neglected. Talking about the bacteria-brain-behavior relationship, research on probiotics is very promising, although the exact mechanism of action is not completely discovered yet. A last aspect covered in this chapter is the influence of the gut on risky behavior, which has not been fully explored neurophysiological, maybe due to the deficient distinction between risk and uncertainty.
This chapter deals with the role of heuristics in decision-making. Heuristics are like shortcuts, enabling humans to make decisions under constrained conditions. For example, the recognition heuristic indicates that if you recognize one option over the other, you always choose the one you recognize. The recognition heuristic and other heuristics are explained in more detail in this chapter. To illustrate the significance of heuristics in our lives, the author describes one of his experiences with heuristics in the healthcare sector and generalizes the empirical findings on heuristics for the application to embodied choices when deciding on medical diagnostics or interventions.
This chapter is an introduction to the concept of embodied choices. Embodied choices will be defined as rules of thumb or shortcuts that take sensorimotor experiences into account. These rules of thumb are meaningful when limited time and resources force people to decide quickly between two or more options. A second aspect covered in this chapter is the role of gut feelings and the brain-gut-behavior connection, which appears to be stronger than expected. The chapter will describe and explain gut feelings and their consequences to real-life choices. Finally, there is a short overview for each chapter and a description of the topics covered in this book.
This chapter argues from an evolutionary perspective that cognition which includes making choices should be defined as “situated activity” (holistic) rather than the traditional basic approach (separated). Embodied choices uncover the evolutionary links between the motor system, perception, and decision-making. Thus the motor system evolves much earlier than language and problem-solving skills in the prefrontal areas of the brain. The important consequence is that behavioral flexibility and thus our ability to adapt to changing environments is a property of both bodies and brains and our representation of the world is formed through acting in the world and by definition choices are embodied.
This book focuses on judgment and decision-making from an embodied
cognition perspective that is how our bodies influence how we think,
decide, and act. I coined the term embodied choices for the fact that indeed
the body plays a major role in our daily choices, even often as an unnoticed
player. Understanding judgment and decision-making without being
embodied has been advanced mainly in isolation within cognitive psychology,
and the movement science played no role. Recently, this has changed.
Rather than viewing observable actions as merely the outcome of some
mental processes the bidirectional interactions of mind and body as a coherent
system became a new paradigm in cognitive sciences.
The book is structured in 13 chapters that use scientific findings on how
people decide in daily situations, lab experiments spanning from millisecond,
based on our intuitions or long-term decisions, from whom to marry
to what to do next in life. In simple words, examples from research as well as
individual or group choices are presented to explain how our movements,
our current body postures, or our gut feelings affect our choices. Examples
will cover decisions based on experience and when we make them the first
time. I hope that this book will increase our acknowledgment of embodied
choices and how to trust them.
Children with a diagnosis of autism and normally developing children, matched for age and general ability, were tested on a series of visual search tasks in 2 separate experiments. The children with autism performed better than the normally developing children on difficult visual search tasks. This result occurred regardless of whether the target was uniquely defined by a single feature or a conjunction of features, as long as ceiling effects did not mask the difference. Superior visual search performance in autism can be seen as analogous to other reports of enhanced unique item detection in autism. Unique item detection in autism is discussed in the light of mechanisms proposed to be involved in normal visual search performance.
The onset of locomotion heralds one of the major life transitions in early development and involves a pervasive set of changes in perception, spatial cognition, and social and emotional development. Through a synthesis of published and hitherto unpublished findings, gathered from a number of converging research designs and methods, this article provides a comprehensive review and reanalysis of the consequences of self-produced locomotor experience. Specifically, we focus on the role of locomotor experience in changes in social and emotional development, referential gestural communication, wariness of heights, the perception of self-motion, distance perception, spatial search, and spatial coding strategies. Our analysis reveals new insights into the specific processes by which locomotor experience brings about psychological changes. We elaborate these processes and provide new predictions about previously unsuspected links between locomotor experience and psychological function. The research we describe is relevant to our broad understanding of the developmental process, particularly as it pertains to developmental transitions. Although acknowledging the role of genetically mediated developmental changes, our viewpoint is a transactional one in which a single acquisition, in this case the onset of locomotion, sets in motion a family of experiences and processes that in turn mobilize both broad-based and context-specific psychological reorganizations. We conclude that, in infancy, the onset of locomotor experience brings about widespread consequences, and after infancy, can be responsible for an enduring role in development by maintaining and updating existing skills.
Over the past decade, theories of embodied cognition have become increasingly influential with research demonstrating that sensorimotor experiences are involved in cognitive processing; however, this embodied research has primarily focused on adult cognition. The notion that sensorimotor experience is important for acquiring conceptual knowledge is not a novel concept for developmental researchers, and yet theories of embodied cognition often do not fully integrate developmental findings. We propose that in order for an embodied cognition perspective to be refined and advanced as a lifelong theory of cognition, it is important to consider what can be learned from research with children. In this paper, we focus on development of concepts and language processing, and examine the importance of children's embodied experiences for these aspects of cognition in particular. Following this review, we outline what we see as important developmental issues that need to be addressed in order to determine the extent to which language and conceptual knowledge are embodied and to refine theories of embodied cognition.
A developmental pathway may be defined as the route, or chain of events, through which a new structure or function forms. For many human behaviors, including object name learning and visual object recognition, these pathways are often complex and multicausal and include unexpected dependencies. This article presents three principles of development that suggest the value of a developmental psychology that explicitly seeks to trace these pathways and uses empirical evidence on developmental dependencies among motor development, action on objects, visual object recognition, and object name learning in 12- to 24-month-old infants to make the case. The article concludes with a consideration of the theoretical implications of this approach.
Autism is a developmental disorder defined by social and communication impairments. Current theoretical approaches and research studies however conceptualise autism as both static and independent from the social context in which it develops. Two lines of research stand out from this general trend. First, research from the neuroconstructivist approach of Karmiloff-Smith (Hum Brain Mapp 31:934-941, 2010) aims to establish developmental trajectories of cognitive impairments in autism over time. Second, studies from intersubjective approaches such as that of Hobson (The cradle of thought, Macmillan, London, 2002) focus on the influence of emotional engagement in cognitive impairments. Although these two lines of research have made an invaluable contribution towards our understanding of autism, both offer only partial explanations: Intersubjective approaches fail to provide a developmental perspective and the neuroconstructivist model neglects the role of the social context. This paper argues that the nature of autism demands the theoretical and methodological integration of these two approaches so that developmental and social aspects are investigated in tandem.
We highlight critical conceptual and statistical issues and how to resolve them in conducting Satorra–Bentler (SB) scaled difference chi-square tests. Concerning the original (Satorra & Bentler, 200124.
Satorra , A. and
Bentler , P. M. 2001. A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66: 507–514. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references) and new (Satorra & Bentler, 201025.
Satorra , A. and
Bentler , P. M. 2010. Ensuring positiveness of the scaled chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75: 243–248. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references) scaled difference tests, a fundamental difference exists in how to compute properly a model's scaling correction factor (c), depending on the particular structural equation modeling software used. Because of how LISREL 8 defines the SB scaled chi-square, LISREL users should compute c for each model by dividing the model's normal theory weighted least-squares (NTWLS) chi-square by its SB chi-square, to recover c accurately with both tests. EQS and Mplus users, in contrast, should divide the model's maximum likelihood (ML) chi-square by its SB chi-square to recover c. Because ML estimation does not minimize the NTWLS chi-square, however, it can produce a negative difference in nested NTWLS chi-square values. Thus, we recommend the standard practice of testing the scaled difference in ML chi-square values for models M 1 and M 0 (after properly recovering c for each model), to avoid an inadmissible test numerator. We illustrate the difference in computations across software programs for the original and new scaled tests and provide LISREL, EQS, and Mplus syntax in both single- and multiple-group form for specifying the model M 10 that is involved in the new test.
How do people represent object meaning? It is now uncontentious that thinking about manipulable objects (e.g., pencils) activates brain regions underlying action. But is this activation part of the meaning of these objects, or is it merely incidental? The research we report here shows that when the hands are engaged in a task involving motions that are incompatible with those used to interact with frequently manipulated objects, it is more difficult to think about those objects-but not harder to think about infrequently manipulated objects (e.g., bookcases). Critically, the amount of manual experience with the object determines the amount of interference. These findings show that brain activity underlying manual action is part of, not peripheral to, the representation of frequently manipulated objects. Further, they suggest that people's ability to think about an object changes dynamically on the basis of the match between their (experience-based) mental representation of its meaning and whatever they are doing at that moment.
Three experiments investigated (a) the development of infants' use of features to find a boundary between 2 adjacent objects and (b) the possible connection between this ability and the development of object exploration skills. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was shown that 3 1/2-month-old infants are beginning to use object features to determine the composition of a display, interpreting a display composed of different-looking parts as 2 separate objects and a display of similar-looking parts as a single object. In Experiment 3, exploration and segregation abilities were assessed in the same infants. The results of this study were that the more actively exploring infants perceived the display used in Experiment 1 as 2 separate objects, whereas the less actively exploring infants did not. One hypothesis consistent with these findings is that infants may learn how object features can be used to find object boundaries as a result of new observations made possible by their more active exploration skills.
During the first year of life, infants spend substantial amounts of time exploring objects they encounter in their daily environments. Perceptuo-motor information gained through these experiences provides a foundation for later developmental advances in cognition and language. This study aims to examine developmental trajectories of visual, oral, and manual object exploration in infants with and without risk for autism spectrum disorder before the age of 1 year. A total of 31 infants, 15 of whom had an older sibling with autism and who were therefore at heightened risk for autism spectrum disorder, played with sounding and nonsounding rattles at 6 and 9 months of age. The results suggest that heightened-risk infants lag behind their low-risk peers in the exploration of objects. The findings are discussed in terms of how delays in object exploration in infancy may have cascading effects in other domains.
We examine the embodiment of one foundational aspect of human cognition, language, through its bodily association with the gestures that accompany its expression in speech. Gesture is a universal feature of human communication. Gestures are produced by all speakers in every culture (although the extent and typology of gesturing may differ). They are tightly timed with speech (McNeill, 1992). Gestures convey important communicative information to the listener, but even blind speakers gesture while talking to blind listeners (Iverson and Goldin-Meadow, 1998), so the mutual co-occurrence of speech and gesture reflects a deep association between the two modes that transcends the intentions of the speaker to communicate. Indeed, we believe that this linkage of the vocal expression of language and the arm movements produced with it are a manifestation of the embodiment of thought: that human mental activities arise through bodily interactions with the world and remain linked with them throughout the lifespan. In particular, we propose that speech and gesture have their developmental origins in early hand-mouth linkages, such that as oral activities become gradually used for meaningful speech, these linkages are maintained and strengthened. Both hand and mouth are tightly coupled in the mutual cognitive activity of language. In short, it is the initial sensorimotor linkages of these systems that form the bases for their later cognitive interdependence.
Examined the ways that infants acquire information about the haptic and visual properties of objects. The 1st study was a cross-sectional investigation of exploratory behavior in 60 6-, 9-, and 12-mo-old infants. Each S was presented with 2 series of objects having some common characteristic. Several general behaviors—looking, handling, mouthing, and banging—were considered along with more specific measures—turning the object while looking, alternating between looking and mouthing, transferring the object from hand to hand, and fingering. Duration of mouthing and particular types of mouthing decreased with age, whereas fingering and other more precise forms of manipulation increased. There were significant stimulus effects showing that the Ss adjusted their behavior to the particular characteristics of the objects. Decrements with increasing familiarization were also observed in most behaviors. The 2nd study addressed the issue of whether the different behaviors are actually used to pick up information about object characteristics. 48 9- and 12-mo-old infants were presented with 3 problems that involved a period of familiarization followed by a trial in which the object was changed along 1 dimension: shape, texture, or weight. Ss' behavior in the change trials suggests that different types of manipulation are used to explore the different changes. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The early development of exploratory behavior was studied. One study documents changes in free exploration of infants aged from 2 to 5 months. Another compares 3- and 4–5 month-olds when manipulating and exploring an object in the light or in the dark (no visual control over exploration). The third study compares multimodal exploration in 3- and 4-month-olds when presented with two different objects varying in multiple properties. Results show that significant changes occur between 2 and 5 months, relative to spontaneous multimodal exploration of a novel object. Object exploration becomes increasingly multimodal. Bimanual coordination is first linked to the oral system, later reorganized in reference to vision when fingering emerges by 4 months. Manipulation in 3-month-olds is shown to be object-dependent. Factors controlling early object manipulation and functional changes in manual action prior to 6 months of age are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Adult active object exploration of novel objects is highly focused; particularly considering the time spent performing specific visual transformations of an object as found in previous experimental studies. The most stereotypical is rotating around object orientations where the object's main axis is either elongated (e.g. a side) or foreshortened (e.g. the top or the bottom). These orientations, called planar views, are in contrast to a visual transformation around an object view that shows multiple sides, for example a view. In contrast to visual recognition of static pictures of well known categories, where views are preferred and faster to recognize, adults prefer planar views when dynamically exploring an object. This bias is related to higher performance in later visual object recognition tasks. The question of the developmental origins of this preference is important both because of the crucial role of sensorimotor exploration for cognitive development and because of the promise of this research for offering a more comprehensive account of visual object recognition, one that includes action. To this end we recorded the self-selected visual information, during active object play, of toddlers aged 15 to 30 months, using a head mounted camera. This age period selected is one where previous studies found large changes in visual object recognition. Children were grouped by vocabulary level and not age in reporting the results, motivated by past research that shows this index of developmental level to be more sensitive to changes in object recognition. Our results suggest that this preference may emerge during this period and by the end, children already demonstrate a preference towards specific visual transformations.
Autism is a developmental disorder marked by impairments in socialization, communication, and perseverative behavior and is associated with cognitive impairment and deficits in adaptive functioning. Research has consistently demonstrated that children with autism have deficits in adaptive functioning more severe than their cognitive deficits. This study investigates the correlates and predictors of adaptive functioning as measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales in high- and low-functioning children with autism and their age and nonverbal IQ matched controls. Thirty-five 9-year-old children with high-functioning autism (HAD) were compared with 31 age-matched children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and 40 9-year-old children with low-functioning autism (LAD) were compared with 17 age-matched children with low IQ on adaptive functioning, IQ, autistic symptomology, and tests of language and verbal memory. Results indicate that both groups with autism were significantly impaired compared to their matched controls on Socialization and Daily Living, but not Communication and that these impairments were more pronounced in the HAD group than in the LAD group. Adaptive behavior was strongly correlated with autistic symptomology only in the HAD group. Regression analyses indicated that IQ was strongly predictive of adaptive behavior in both low-functioning groups, but tests of language and verbal memory predicted adaptive behavior in the higher functioning groups. Results suggest that IQ may act as a limiting factor for lower functioning children but higher functioning children are impaired by specific deficits, including autistic symptomology and impaired language and verbal memory.
The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule—Generic (ADOS-G) is a semistructured, standardized assessment of social interaction, communication, play, and imaginative use of materials for individuals suspected of having autism spectrum disorders. The observational schedule consists of four 30-minute modules, each designed to be administered to different individuals according to their level of expressive language. Psychometric data are presented for 223 children and adults with Autistic Disorder (autism), Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS) or nonspectrum diagnoses. Within each module, diagnostic groups were equivalent on expressive language level. Results indicate substantial interrater and test—retest reliability for individual items, excellent interrater reliability within domains and excellent internal consistency. Comparisons of means indicated consistent differentiation of autism and PDDNOS from nonspectrum individuals, with some, but less consistent, differentiation of autism from PDDNOS. A priori operationalization of DSM-IV/ICD-10 criteria, factor analyses, and ROC curves were used to generate diagnostic algorithms with thresholds set for autism and broader autism spectrum/PDD. Algorithm sensitivities and specificities for autism and PDDNOS relative to nonspectrum disorders were excellent, with moderate differentiation of autism from PDDNOS.
Several studies demonstrated that active exploration as compared to passive observation of a variety of objects leads to improved performance concerning these actively studied objects later on. These results may be specifically due to an improvement in perceptual recognition but in principle they may also be due to a speeding up of responses to actively studied objects. Recently, however, it was suggested that the benefit of active exploration on perceptual recognition may be restricted to a specific class of (biologically relevant) stimuli. By employing measures derived from signal detection theory we were able to show in all our three experiments that active exploration of virtual 3D objects leads to improved perceptual sensitivity in a subsequent test phase. The improvement with these objects means that the benefit of active exploration is not restricted to a specific class of biologically relevant stimuli. The results of our second experiment further demonstrate that the benefit of active exploration is even strong enough to fully compensate for the effect of perceptual degradation, thereby emphasizing the major impact of active exploration. In our third experiment, we explored the possibility that effects of active exploration might be due to major changes in attentional strategies rather than to the action-related aspect. Results revealed that an attentional requirement left the active-passive difference by and large intact supporting the view that the advantage of active object exploration lies in the action itself.
The extent to which early social communication behaviors predict later communication and intellectual outcomes was investigated via retrospective video analysis. Joint attention, imitation, and complex object play behaviors were coded from edited home videos featuring scenes of 29 children with ASD at 9-12 and/or 15-18 months. A quantitative interval recording of behavior and a qualitative rating of the developmental level were applied. Social communication behaviors increased between 9-12 and 15-18 months. Their mean level during infancy, but not the rate of change, predicted both Vineland Communication scores and intellectual functioning at 3-7 years. The two methods of measurement yielded similar results. Thus, early social communicative behaviors may play pivotal roles in the development of subsequent communication and intellectual functioning.
Research regarding semantic knowledge of objects is often conducted independently in children and adults. Review of these bodies of evidence suggests that the two literatures are often complementary. It seems critical to determine what we can learn from a developmental perspective, toward the common goal of understanding semantic organization. Here we focus on the proposal that semantic knowledge about concrete concepts may be built on the foundation of sensory/motor processes. In particular, we focus on a moderate formulation of this viewpoint, the sensory/motor model of semantic representations of objects (e.g., Gainotti 2007; Martin 2007), which has been examined utilizing behavioral, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological evidence. Taken together, behavioral and neuroimaging studies with infants, older children, and adults have suggested that patterns laid down in early childhood remain salient throughout the lifespan and may also predict patterns of deficit that emerge following brain injury.
With increased interest in the early diagnosis and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), more attention has been called to the motor skills of very young children with ASD. This study describes the gross and fine motor skills of a cross-sectional group of 162 children with ASD between the ages of 12 and 36 months, as well as a subset of 58 children followed longitudinally. Gross motor and fine motor age equivalent scores were obtained for all children. A ‘motor difference’ variable was calculated for each child’s gross and fine motor skills by taking the absolute difference of the children’s age equivalent motor score and their respective chronological age. In Study 1 (the cross-sectional analysis), ANCOVA (co-varied for nonverbal problem solving) revealed significant group differences in the gross motor and fine motor age difference variables. Post-hoc analysis revealed that gross motor and fine motor differences became significantly greater with each 6-month period of chronological age. In Study 2, 58 children were measured twice, an average of 12 months apart. Results indicate that the gross motor and fine motor difference scores significantly increased between the first and second measurements. The importance of addressing motor development in early intervention treatments is discussed.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are the most common pediatric diagnoses in the United States. In this perspective article, we propose that a diverse set of motor impairments are present in children and adults with ASDs. Specifically, we will discuss evidence related to gross motor, fine motor, postural control, and imitation/praxis impairments. Moreover, we propose that early motor delays within the first 2 years of life may contribute to the social impairments of children with ASDs; therefore, it is important to address motor impairments through timely assessments and effective interventions. Lastly, we acknowledge the limitations of the evidence currently available and suggest clinical implications for motor assessment and interventions in children with ASDs. In terms of assessment, we believe that comprehensive motor evaluations are warranted for children with ASDs and infants at risk for ASDs. In terms of interventions, there is an urgent need to develop novel embodied interventions grounded in movement and motor learning principles for children with autism.
The onset of crawling marks a motor, cognitive and social milestone. The present study investigated whether independent walking marks a second milestone for social behaviors. In Experiment 1, the social and exploratory behaviors of crawling infants were observed while crawling and in a baby-walker, resulting in no differences based on posture. In Experiment 2, the social behaviors of independently walking infants were compared to age-matched crawling infants in a baby-walker. Independently walking infants spent significantly more time interacting with the toys and with their mothers, and also made more vocalizations and more directed gestures compared to infants in the walker. Experiment 3 tracked infants' social behaviors longitudinally across the transition from crawling and walking. Even when controlled for age, the transition to independent walking marked increased interaction time with mothers, as well as more sophisticated interactions, including directing mothers' attention to particular objects. The results suggest a developmental progression linking social interactions with milestones in locomotor development.
Background: Although limited environmental exploration in autism is an obvious behavioral feature and may be a manifestation of “restricted interests” as described in DSM-IV criteria, there have been no behavioral or neurobiological studies of this important aspect of the disorder. Given consistent reports of cerebellar abnormality in autism, combined with animal research showing a relationship between exploration and the cerebellum, this study aimed to test the possible link between cerebellar abnormality and exploration in autism.
Infants' spontaneous play with objects was examined for evidence of developments in object knowledge in relation to the emergence of words and the single-word period in language development. Subjects were 7 girls and 7 boys, from different ethnic and economic backgrounds, who were studied longitudinally from 9 months to 26 months of age. Two types of displacements of objects in relation to one another were identified in the children's play: separations and constructions. The development of constructions was associated with the emergence of words, and constructions increased with age while separations decreased. The development of specific constructions, which account for knowledge of the particular properties of objects, was more strongly associated with a vocabulary spurt at the end of the single-word period than with chronological age. Despite the wide variation in the infants' ages when developments in language and play were reached, relations between achievements in the two domains were consistent among them, as confirmed with the Friedman test, p<.001. The results are discussed in terms of the cognitive developments required for play with objects and saying words.
We investigated whether fine motor and expressive language skills are related in the later-born siblings of children with autism (heightened-risk, HR infants) who are at increased risk for language delays. We observed 34 HR infants longitudinally from 12 to 36 months. We used parent report and standardized observation measures to assess fine motor skill from 12 to 24 months in HR infants (Study 1) and its relation to later expressive vocabulary at 36 months in HR infants (Study 2). In Study 1, we also included 25 infants without a family history of autism to serve as a normative comparison group for a parent-report fine motor measure. We found that HR infants exhibited fine motor delays between 12 and 24 months and expressive vocabulary delays at 36 months. Further, fine motor skill significantly predicted expressive language at 36 months. Fine motor and expressive language skills are related early in development in HR infants, who, as a group, exhibit risk for delays in both. Our findings highlight the importance of considering fine motor skill in children at risk for language impairments and may have implications for early identification of expressive language difficulties.
Two studies used a new paradigm to examine preschool children's (i.e., 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) word learning across multiple sense modalities. In Study 1 (n = 60), children heard a word for an object that they touched but did not see, while word learning was examined using objects that were seen but not touched. In Study 2 (n = 60), children heard a word for an object that they saw but did not touch, while word learning was examined using objects that were touched but not seen. Findings from both studies revealed that children were able to learn words by coordinating information across multiple sense modalities and that word learning improved with age. These findings are discussed in terms of E. J. Gibson's differentiation theory (196925.
Gibson , E. J. ( 1969 ). Principles of perceptual learning and development . Englewood Cliffs , NJ : Prentice Hall . View all references, 198826.
Gibson , E. J. ( 1988 ). Exploratory behavior in the development of perceiving, acting, and the acquiring of knowledge . Annual Review of Psychology , 39 , 1 – 41 . [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references).
The study of how infants and children come to control their bodies is perhaps the oldest topic in scientific developmental psychology. Yet, for many years the study of motor development lay dormant. In the last two decades, however, there has been an enormous resurgence of interest. As at the time of the very beginnings of our field, the contemporary study of motor development is contributing both empirically and theoretically to the larger questions in development and especially to our understanding of developmental change. In this essay, I trace the course of the changing fortunes of motor development, evaluate where we have been, what we are doing, and speculate on some critical issues for the future. The purpose of this essay is to comment on the general themes and influences that have been a part of motor development’s “rise-fall-and-rise-again” history. For a more comprehensive review of substantive topic areas in motor development, readers are referred to the authoritative treatment recently published by Bertenthal and Clifton (1998) and to the excellent monograph by Goldfield (1995).
This article is concerned with measures of fit of a model. Two types of error involved in fitting a model are considered. The first is error of approximation which involves the fit of the model, with optimally chosen but unknown parameter values, to the population covariance matrix. The second is overall error which involves the fit of the model, with parameter values estimated from the sample, to the population covariance matrix. Measures of the two types of error are proposed and point and interval estimates of the measures are suggested. These measures take the number of parameters in the model into account in order to avoid penalizing parsimonious models. Practical difficulties associated with the usual tests of exact fit or a model are discussed and a test of “close fit” of a model is suggested.
The study involved observing and video‐recording spontaneous and naturally occurring play behaviours of six children with mental handicap as they interacted with their parents over a two‐year period. The children were developmentally ten to fourteen months of age at the start of the study. They were chosen at various developmental stages in the hope that transitions between stages could be observed. First words were found to emerge in four children, and three children exhibited vocabulary spurt. These developments were found to relate to specific aspects of object displacement and finding behaviours. The results indicated that children with mental handicap develop object knowledge and early language in a similar sequence and structure to normal children. The relationship between object knowledge and early language was observed as inter‐dependent, where the two domains were seen to mutually influence and transform one another in the course of development.
Children learn how to learn language, and they get better as they go along. This article presents an overview of research inspired by a dynamic systems view of language learning that shows it to be a self-organizing process in which children create the units they need from the regularities present in the environment in which they are situated.
Piaget's (1952) question of how the adult mind emerges from the sensorimotor infant is still the framing issue for developmental psychology. Here I suggest that real-life skill is better understood if the sensorimotor origins of cognition are not abandoned. Skilled people are not only better at both abstract and logical thinking but also at processing the world “online” and, most important, seamlessly and rapidly shifting between the two modes. I illustrate the tight coupling between action, perception, and cognition in early life and propose that this coupling remains but becomes more flexibly adaptive. Further, I show that the language of dynamics is appropriate to capture these mind-body-world interconnections.
Individuals with autism show various signs of heightened abilities in visuo-spatial functioning. First, it is long-established that they excel on embedded figures and block design tests relative to comparison participants. Second, some evidence suggests that processing global features is affected by inappropriate processing of the constituent elements of a stimulus. Third, they are more accurate than comparison participants in judging the shape of a slanted circle in a context in which ambient visual cues are eliminated. This suggests that their perception of the shape is less influenced by prior knowledge. Fourth, they are fast at searching for feature and conjunctive targets in a visual array. Contrary to earlier reports, however, they are susceptible to visual illusions. Also, they do show evidence of utilising prior knowledge when pairing a colour with an atypically coloured target. Accordingly, we conclude that there is something distinctive about autistic visuo-spatial functioning, but not necessarily in ways that are predicted by the ‘weak central coherence’ hypothesis. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Activities of primiparous mothers and infants were observed at 2 and at 5 months of age during naturalistic interactions at home. 5 prominent features of mother and infant exchanges in this short-term longitudinal study are described and discussed in the context of 3 models of unique environment-development relations, covariation, stability, continuity, correspondence, and prediction. Generally, mothers' activities did not positively covary at either age, nor did those of infants. Some maternal activities were stable in this time period; some developmentally increased, and some developmentally decreased. Infants' activities were unstable, but most increased over time. Specific mother and infant activities corresponded, and over time mothers and infants influenced one another in specific ways. In the critical period of the first half year, infants appear to be flexible and plastic in their behavioral repertoires and are influenced by their mothers; mothers are somewhat consistent, but they also adapt to the behaviors of their infants.
Although a considerable amount is known about the development of object manipulation during the 1st year, less is known about how infants manually explore surfaces and relate objects to surfaces. To address these issues, 60 infants (20 each at 6, 8, and 10 months of age) were presented hard and soft objects on tabletop surfaces, which varied in terms of their material properties. Tabletop surfaces were either liquid, discontinuous, flexible, or rigid. Results indicated that infants explored the objects, surfaces, and their interactions selectively, tailoring their manual actions to the material properties of the objects or surfaces. In some instances, selectivity increased with age. The implications of these findings for understanding the origins of problem solving and tool use are considered.
The ecological approach to visual perception (J.J. Gibson, 1966, 1979) provides the framework for the view of perceptual development we present here. It is a theory about perceiving by active creatures who look and listen and move around. It is a theory about everyday perceiving in the world, and it differs greatly from theories that begin with a motionless creature haplessly bombarded by stimuli. Perceiving creatures are part of a world from which they seek information and in which they use it. Perceiving begins at least as soon as an animal is born and well it should, for its function is to keep an animal in touch with the environment around it.
The ecological approach takes as its unit of study the animal in its environment, considered as an interactive system. The relations within this system are reciprocal, with the reciprocity including a species evolving in an environment to which it becomes adapted, and an individual acting in its own niche, developing and learning.
Traditional approaches to cognitive development concentrate on the stability of cognition and explain that stability via concepts segregated from perceiving acting. A dynamic systems approach in contrast focuses on the self-organization of behavior in tasks. This article uses recent results concerning the embodiment of cognition to argue for a dynamic systems approach. The embodiment hypothesis is the idea that intelligence emerges in the interaction of an organism with an environment and as a result of sensory-motor activity. The continual coupling of cognition to the world through the body both adapts cognition to the idiosyncrasies of the here and now, makes it relevant, and provides the mechanism for developmental change.
Previous research has shown that naı̈ve participants display a high level of agreement when asked to choose or draw schematic representations, or image schemas, of concrete and abstract verbs [Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2001, Erlbaum, Mawhah, NJ, p. 873]. For example, participants tended to ascribe a horizontal image schema to push, and a vertical image schema to respect. This consistency in offline data is preliminary evidence that language invokes spatial forms of representation. It also provided norms that were used in the present research to investigate the activation of spatial image schemas during online language comprehension. We predicted that if comprehending a verb activates a spatial representation that is extended along a particular horizontal or vertical axis, it will affect other forms of spatial processing along that axis. Participants listened to short sentences while engaged in a visual discrimination task (Experiment 1) and a picture memory task (Experiment 2). In both cases, reaction times showed an interaction between the horizontal/vertical nature of the verb’s image schema, and the horizontal/vertical position of the visual stimuli. We argue that such spatial effects of verb comprehension provide evidence for the perceptual–motor character of linguistic representations.
This study was aimed to examine whether individual differences in postural control at 6 months of age could predict cognitive development and attention in relatively healthy preterm infants 6–18 months later. Three groups of infants were identified on the basis of a behavioral observation during an exploration task: infants with an adequate postural control (N=33), infants who showed extension of the elbows consistently (N=23), and infants who demonstrated clear signs of hyperextension of neck and trunk (N=9). In contrast to infants with an adequate postural control, infants who showed signs of hyperextension or elbow extension scored significantly lower on several cognitive measures (Bayley mental scale and tasks for problem solving) and were significantly more often not attending to a task, 6–18 months later. This study showed that individual differences in postural control could predict later cognitive development and inattention of infants who were born prematurely.
Two experiments show that action alters the shape categories formed by 2-year-olds. Experiment 1 shows that moving an object horizontally (or vertically) defines the horizontal (or vertical) axis as the main axis of elongation and systematically changes the range of shapes seen as similar. Experiment 2 shows that moving an object symmetrically (or asymmetrically) also alters shape categories. Previous work has shown marked developmental changes in object recognition between 1 and 3 years of age. These results suggest a role for action in this developmental process.
A detailed visual processing style has been noted in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); this contributes to problems in face processing and has been directly related to abnormal processing of spatial frequencies (SFs). Little is known about the early development of face processing in ASD and the relation with abnormal SF processing. We investigated whether young ASD children show abnormalities in low spatial frequency (LSF, global) and high spatial frequency (HSF, detailed) processing and explored whether these are crucially involved in the early development of face processing.
Three- to 4-year-old children with ASD (n = 22) were compared with developmentally delayed children without ASD (n = 17). Spatial frequency processing was studied by recording visual evoked potentials from visual brain areas while children passively viewed gratings (HSF/LSF). In addition, children watched face stimuli with different expressions, filtered to include only HSF or LSF.
Enhanced activity in visual brain areas was found in response to HSF versus LSF information in children with ASD, in contrast to control subjects. Furthermore, facial-expression processing was also primarily driven by detail in ASD.
Enhanced visual processing of detailed (HSF) information is present early in ASD and occurs for neutral (gratings), as well as for socially relevant stimuli (facial expressions). These data indicate that there is a general abnormality in visual SF processing in early ASD and are in agreement with suggestions that a fast LSF subcortical face processing route might be affected in ASD. This could suggest that abnormal visual processing is causative in the development of social problems in ASD.
