Alsaedi Rehab H
Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia.
BMC Pediatr. 2025 Jun 5;25(1):457. doi: 10.1186/s12887-025-05756-9.
The neurological model of autism proposes that higher-order processing disturbances underpin the condition's behavioral features, although emerging evidence attributes these executive functioning issues to lower-order processing disturbances influenced by sensory and motor development. This raises an important question concerning the directionality and development trajectories of neurological disturbances in autism. Hence, this study sought to elucidate the overlapping relations among executive dysfunctions, sensory processing atypicalities, and motor performance disruptions in children with autism.
Data were collected from 119 children with autism and their parents/guardians, who were recruited from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The participants' executive functioning, sensory processing, and motor performance were assessed using standardized computerized neuropsychological tests and parent rating scales. Two models were developed to examine whether the downstream effects of sensory processing disturbances and motor performance delays predict/contribute to the cognitive disruptions observed in the children.
The structural equation modeling results revealed there to be significant structural pathways leading from the latent sensory-motor domains to the latent executive functions, which held true for both laboratory and real-world functioning, indicating that sensory-motor issues contribute to more severe disturbances in executive functions. Notably, the model including the motor variable (measured using the BOT-2) was the best predictor of altered executive functioning in everyday and laboratory settings.
The findings of this study indicate the potential of multifaceted and clinically integrated training programs that target both sensory and motor abilities in children with autism to improve their executive functioning. An in-depth understanding of the relations among these parameters may suggest new therapeutic approaches for these children.
自闭症的神经学模型提出，高阶加工障碍是该病症行为特征的基础，尽管新出现的证据将这些执行功能问题归因于受感觉和运动发育影响的低阶加工障碍。这就引发了一个关于自闭症神经障碍的方向性和发展轨迹的重要问题。因此，本研究旨在阐明自闭症儿童执行功能障碍、感觉加工异常和运动表现破坏之间的重叠关系。
从巴林、沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国招募了119名自闭症儿童及其父母/监护人，收集他们儿童/收集了他们的数据。使用标准化的计算机神经心理测试和家长评定量表对参与者的执行功能、感觉加工和运动表现进行评估。开发了两个模型来检验感觉加工障碍和运动表现延迟的下游效应是否预测/导致了在儿童中观察到的认知破坏。
结构方程模型结果显示，从潜在的感觉运动领域到潜在的执行功能存在显著的结构路径，这在实验室和现实世界功能中均成立，表明感觉运动问题会导致执行功能出现更严重的障碍。值得注意的是，包含运动变量（使用BOT-2测量）的模型是日常和实验室环境中执行功能改变的最佳预测指标。
本研究结果表明，针对自闭症儿童的感觉和运动能力的多方面且临床综合训练计划有可能改善他们的执行功能。对这些参数之间关系的深入理解可能会为这些儿童提出新的治疗方法。
