Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA.
Autism. 2012 Jul;16(4):430-41. doi: 10.1177/1362361311423018. Epub 2011 Oct 19.
Although motor impairment is frequently observed in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the manner in which these impairments aggregate in families affected by autism is unknown. We used a standardized measure of motor proficiency to objectively examine quantitative variation in motor proficiency in sibling pairs concordant and discordant for ASD.
Motor impairment of sibling pairs from 67 ASD-affected families comprising 29 concordant pairings and 48 discordant pairings were assessed using the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, 2nd Edition, a standardized measure of motor proficiency.
Motor skills were substantially impaired among ASD-affected children and highly correlated with autistic severity and IQ, whereas motor skills in unaffected siblings were essentially normal. Total motor composite scores of at least one standard deviation below the general population mean were seen in 83% of the affected group compared with 6% in the unaffected siblings.
Findings indicate that motor impairment constitutes a core characteristic of ASD (not necessarily an ASD endophenotype), which has distinct implications for taxonomy, diagnosis, and approaches to intervention.
尽管自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童经常出现运动障碍，但自闭症患者家庭中这些障碍的聚集方式尚不清楚。我们使用标准化的运动能力测量方法，客观地检查了 ASD 同病率和非同病率的兄弟姐妹对之间运动能力的定量变化。
使用 Bruininks-Oseretsky 运动能力测试第二版（一种标准化的运动能力测量方法）评估了来自 67 个受 ASD 影响的家庭的兄弟姐妹对的运动障碍，这些家庭包括 29 对同病率配对和 48 对非同病率配对。
受 ASD 影响的儿童的运动技能严重受损，与自闭症严重程度和智商高度相关，而未受影响的兄弟姐妹的运动技能基本正常。受影响组中有 83%的儿童的总运动综合评分低于一般人群平均值一个标准差，而未受影响的兄弟姐妹中只有 6%。
研究结果表明，运动障碍是 ASD 的一个核心特征（不一定是 ASD 的内表型），这对分类、诊断和干预方法具有重要意义。
