In addition to the core characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), motor skill deficits are present, persistent, and pervasive across age. Although motor skill deficits have been indicated in young children with autism, they have not been included in the primary discussion of early intervention content. One hundred fifty-nine young children with a confirmed diagnosis of ASD (n = 110), PDD-NOS (n = 26), and non-ASD (n = 23) between the ages of 14–33 months participated in this study.1 The univariate general linear model tested the relationship of fine and gross motor skills and social communicative skills (using calibrated autism severity scores). Fine motor and gross motor skills significantly predicted calibrated autism severity (p < .05). Children with weaker motor skills have greater social communicative skill deficits. Future directions and the role of motor skills in early intervention are discussed.
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Motor Skills and Calibrated Autism Severity in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Megan MacDonald, Catherine Lord, and Dale A. Ulrich
Boys and Girls Have Similar Gains in Fundamental Motor Skills Across a Preschool Motor Skill Intervention
Kara K. Palmer, Danielle Harkavy, Sarah M. Rock, and Leah E. Robinson
Fundamental motor skills (FMS) are goal-directed, voluntary movements that develop into more advanced or sport-specific movements ( Clark & Metcalfe, 2002 ). FMS develop in childhood (3–7 years of age) and form the foundation for more context-specific skills later in life ( Clark & Metcalfe, 2002
A Conceptual Model of Perceived Motor Skill Competence, Successful Practice Trials, and Motor Skill Performance in Physical Education
Mingda Li, Weidong Li, Junyoung Kim, Ping Xiang, Fei Xin, and Yan Tang
Helping students successfully perform a variety of motor skills (known as motor skill performance) has long been an important goal of school physical education. Consequently, a considerable amount of work has examined motivational and behavioral correlates of motor skill performance from multiple
Fundamental Motor Skill Performance of Indigenous and Nonindigenous Children
Marcelo Gonçalves Duarte, Glauber Carvalho Nobre, Thábata Viviane Brandão Gomes, and Rodolfo Novelino Benda
Studies have reported the prevalence of children with lower motor development in motor skills such as jumping, throwing, running, striking, and catching ( Bardid, Rudd, Lenoir, Polman, & Barnett, 2015 ; Brian et al., 2019 ; Duncan, Jones, O’Brien, Barnett, & Eyre, 2018 ; Nobre, Valentini
What are Fundamental Motor Skills and What is Fundamental About Them?
Karl M. Newell
There have been many efforts to provide a classification or taxonomy of human perceptual-motor skills 1 (e.g., Burton & Rodgerson, 2001 ; Fleishman, Quaintance, & Broedling, 1984 ; Gentile, 1987 ; Poulton, 1957 ; Schmidt & Lee, 2012 ; Seefeldt, 1980 ; Singer & Gerson, 1981 ; Warren, 2006
Associations Between Physical Activity and Gross Motor Skills in Parent–Child Dyads
Katherine Q. Scott-Andrews, Rebecca E. Hasson, Alison L. Miller, Thomas J. Templin, and Leah E. Robinson
wide range of gross motor skills (i.e., locomotor, object manipulation, and stability skills) and is positively associated with physical activity ( Robinson et al., 2015 ; Stodden et al., 2008 ). However, physical activity levels are low in both adults ( Althoff et al., 2017 ) and children ( United
Gross Motor Skills and School Day Physical Activity: Mediating Effect of Perceived Competence
You Fu and Ryan D. Burns
, 2007 ). Because children spend a significant portion of waking hours during school, finding ways to increase school day physical activity may facilitate meeting daily guidelines. Improving gross motor skills may facilitate meeting daily physical activity guidelines in youth. Evidence suggests that the
Early Movement Matters: Interplay of Physical Activity and Motor Skill Development in Infants With Down Syndrome
Janet L. Hauck, Isabella T. Felzer-Kim, and Kathryn L. Gwizdala
, standardized motor development scales may not detect delays until 6 months ( Rast & Harris, 1985 ). Furthermore, motor delays in infants with DS hold relevance beyond infancy, as motor proficiency remains a difficult goal into childhood ( Jobling, 1999 ). Improvements in motor skills are not only important for
Motor Skills and Participation in Middle Childhood: A Direct Path for Boys, a Mediated Path for Girls
Elnaz Emadirad, Brad W.N. Temple, Stephanie C. Field, Patti-Jean Naylor, and Viviene A. Temple
motivation for learning in physical education 4 and to self-esteem. 6 Children’s participation in physical activities is also related to their actual motor skill proficiency. 7 – 11 Cross-sectional findings show that motor skill proficiency is associated with participation in organized sport, 12 skill
How Common Is the Exponential Decay Pattern of Motor Skill Acquisition? A Brief Investigation
Geneviève N. Olivier, Christopher S. Walter, Serene S. Paul, Leland E. Dibble, and Sydney Y. Schaefer
theoretical model for characterizing motor skill acquisition, both for group and individual learner data, and tasks of varying complexity (e.g., Deuschl et al., 1996 ; Schaefer, Dibble, & Duff, 2015 ; Wadden et al., 2017 ). Despite its pervasiveness, the three-parameter exponential decay function may not
