Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Neurology. 2010 Nov 16;75(20):1825-9. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181fd633d.
We have previously shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have specific handwriting deficits consisting of poor form, and that these deficits are predicted by their motor abilities. It is not known whether the same handwriting impairments persist into adolescence and whether they remain linked to motor deficits.
A case-control study of handwriting samples from adolescents with and without ASD was performed using the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment. Samples were scored on an individual letter basis in 5 categories: legibility, form, alignment, size, and spacing. Subjects were also administered an intelligence test and the Physical and Neurological Examination for Subtle (Motor) Signs (PANESS).
We found that adolescents with ASD, like children, show overall worse performance on a handwriting task than do age- and intelligence-matched controls. Also comparable to children, adolescents with ASD showed motor impairments relative to controls. However, adolescents with ASD differ from children in that Perceptual Reasoning Indices were significantly predictive of handwriting performance whereas measures of motor skills were not.
Like children with ASD, adolescents with ASD have poor handwriting quality relative to controls. Despite still demonstrating motor impairments, in adolescents perceptual reasoning is the main predictor of handwriting performance, perhaps reflecting subjects' varied abilities to learn strategies to compensate for their motor impairments.
我们之前已经表明，自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童存在特定的书写缺陷，包括书写形式不佳，这些缺陷可以通过他们的运动能力来预测。目前尚不清楚这些相同的书写缺陷是否会持续到青春期，以及它们是否仍然与运动缺陷有关。
使用明尼苏达 handwriting assessment 对有和没有 ASD 的青少年的 handwriting 样本进行了病例对照研究。样本在 5 个类别中根据单个字母进行评分：清晰度、形式、对齐、大小和间距。受试者还接受了智力测试和细微（运动）体征的身体和神经检查（paness）。
我们发现，与年龄和智力匹配的对照组相比，青少年 ASD 患者在手写任务上的整体表现更差。与儿童一样，青少年 ASD 患者相对于对照组也存在运动障碍。然而，与儿童不同的是，感知推理指数是笔迹表现的显著预测因素，而运动技能的测量则不是。
与 ASD 儿童一样，与对照组相比，青少年 ASD 患者的书写质量较差。尽管仍然存在运动障碍，但在青少年中，感知推理是笔迹表现的主要预测因素，这可能反映了受试者学习策略以弥补运动障碍的不同能力。
