Characterizing goal-directed whole-body movements in autistic children and children with developmental coordination disorder

Abstract

Background: Motor difficulties are highly prevalent in neurodevelopmental conditions. Both autistic children and children with developmental coordination disorder exhibit clinically-significant motor difficulties with substantial differences in postural control. Postural control has been examined extensively in these groups independently, but there has been little research comparing them in the same study. Methods: We examined dynamic postural control in autistic children, children with developmental coordination disorder, and neurotypical children using an immersive virtual reality task. Children moved a user-controlled ball to a static target using whole-body movements. Results: Children in all three groups were able to move their ball to the target successfully, but there were significant differences in their movement characteristics (e.g., trial duration, path efficiency, log dimensionless jerk, movement types). There was a similar trend for each of the movement characteristics: autistic children performed significantly worse than neurotypical children, and children with developmental coordination disorder had varied performance compared to neurotypical and autistic children. Conclusion: These findings provide clear support for our hypotheses that autistic children have difficulty with goal-directed whole-body movements, and that these movements are similarly different from neurotypical children's movements. They provide mixed support for our hypothesis that children with developmental coordination disorder differ in their goal-directed body movements. By understanding the similarities and differences in motor difficulties across neurodevelopmental conditions, we can begin to develop motor interventions specifically targeted to the unique motor profiles of these populations.