Evaluation of Movement and Motor Skills for Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Early diagnosis for the young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is essential, ensuring that the interventions necessary to develop children's skills are adopted early when brain plasticity is much more accentuated, and therapy is more effective. Past research has established that poor motor skills are related to broader social behavioral challenges. To effectively diagnose ASD at an earlier stage of an individual's life, it is important to identify motor skills deficits. Therefore, the paper provides a analysis of the role of motor problems in ASD for early diagnosis. We found that developmental sensorimotor deficits during early childhood are significant predictors of a potential diagnosis of ASD. Motor deficits are usually the first sign of atypical development and are intrinsically linked to other developmental domains. However, there are still significant gaps to assess the motor function in children with ASD, given the heterogeneity found and individual or global limitations of these assessments. We conclude that studies using quantitative computational methods to assess and evaluate movement are encouraged for early diagnosis and customized therapies to cover the broader range of atypical neurodevelopment within ASD.