Praxis and autism: The psychomotor regulation sensory processing dimension - A report from the field

Abstract

A quiet revolution is afoot in our understanding of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Classically understood as a social disorder (Kanner, 1943) that presents clinically with social and communication difficulty and restricted patterns of behaviors (Lord, et al., 2000), both diagnosis and therapeutic interventions have correspondingly focused upon behavioral and typical development theory (Lovaas, 1987; Dawson et al., 2010). Yet recent studies across multiple fields have begun to substantiate what my colleagues and I have come to learn about ASD through almost two decades of clinical work with children. In fact two recent papers propose a cognitive motor model of autism and summarize much of this research (Rizzolatti & Fabbri-Destro, 2010; Mostofksy & Ewen, 2011). That research is further bolstered by (auto) biographical work of several people living with ASD (Williams, 1994; Biklen, 2005; Iverson, 2007). The primary claim is as simple as it is radical ASD has as a primary, defining feature psychomotor regulation sensory processing disorder. Whether this psychomotor dimension simply parallels the social and communication deficits that consume almost all of the attention and resources in research and intervention, or plays an important role in producing those symptoms will have to be the topic of future research over the coming decade. What we can say at present is that an important psychomotor dimension that has etiological and symptomatic aspects exists, and that this has important, if only nascently understood, therapeutic implications. © 2012 Berger.