Simarro Gonzalez Marian, Ni Gessica, Lam Valerie, Demopoulos Carly
Spoken Language Interest Group, Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
Front Psychiatry. 2024 May 21;15:1379307. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1379307. eCollection 2024.
This study investigated the associations between fine motor skills and expressive verbal abilities in a group of 97 autistic participants (age 8-17, mean=12.41) and 46 typically developing youth (age 8-17, mean=12.48).
Participants completed assessments of motor and verbal communication skills, including finger tapping speed, grooved pegboard, grip strength, visual-motor integration tasks, and measures of speech and communication skills. ASD group performance on motor tests was compared to controls. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze group differences and correlations between motor and verbal communication skills. Based on prior research, we hypothesized that individuals on the autism spectrum would exhibit deficits in fine motor speed, dexterity, pencil motor control, but not manual motor strength. Additionally, we expected that impaired fine motor skills would be linked to poorer performance on standardized measures of verbal abilities.
The results indicated that 80% of autistic participants demonstrated an impairment on at least one measure of motor skills, and as a group, they exhibited significantly poorer fine motor performance compared to the non-ASD group in dominant hand finger tapping speed, bilateral fine motor dexterity measured via the grooved pegboard task, and pencil motor coordination and visual-motor integration measured on the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration-Sixth Edition. Moreover, impaired fine motor skills were associated with poorer performance on standardized clinical measures of verbal abilities, including articulation errors, receptive and expressive language and vocabulary, rapid naming, oromotor sequencing, and parent reported functional communication skills and social communication symptoms.
Overall,our findings suggest there is a high prevalence of fine motor impairments in ASD, and these impairments were associated with a range of verbal abilities. Further research is warranted to better understand the underlying mechanisms of these associations and develop targeted interventions to address both fine motor and verbal impairments in ASD.
本研究调查了97名自闭症参与者（年龄8 - 17岁，平均年龄 = 12.41岁）和46名发育正常的青少年（年龄8 - 17岁，平均年龄 = 12.48岁）的精细运动技能与表达性语言能力之间的关联。
参与者完成了运动和言语交流技能评估，包括手指敲击速度、有槽木板拼图、握力、视觉运动整合任务以及言语和交流技能测量。将自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）组在运动测试中的表现与对照组进行比较。采用非参数检验分析组间差异以及运动和言语交流技能之间的相关性。基于先前的研究，我们假设自闭症谱系中的个体在精细运动速度、灵活性、铅笔运动控制方面会表现出缺陷，但手部运动力量不会。此外，我们预计精细运动技能受损将与言语能力标准化测量中的较差表现相关。
结果表明，80%的自闭症参与者在至少一项运动技能测量中表现出损伤，并且作为一个群体，他们在优势手手指敲击速度、通过有槽木板拼图任务测量的双侧精细运动灵活性以及在贝利 - 布克滕尼卡视觉运动整合发育测试第六版中测量的铅笔运动协调性和视觉运动整合方面，与非自闭症谱系障碍组相比，精细运动表现明显更差。此外，精细运动技能受损与言语能力标准化临床测量中的较差表现相关，包括发音错误、接受性和表达性语言及词汇、快速命名、口面部运动序列，以及家长报告的功能性交流技能和社交交流症状。
总体而言，我们的研究结果表明自闭症谱系障碍中精细运动损伤的患病率很高，并且这些损伤与一系列言语能力相关。有必要进行进一步研究，以更好地理解这些关联的潜在机制，并制定针对性干预措施，以解决自闭症谱系障碍中的精细运动和言语损伤问题。
