Production of Knowledge about Motor Development and Autistic Spectrum Disorder: a Biliometric Review

Abstract

The Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by deficit in the areas of communication and social interaction, beyond restricted, stereotyped and repetitive behaviors. Although it is a topic under constant discussion in the current literature, there are still many doubts to be investigated. Therefore, in this article, we aimed to investigate the scientific production on the motor development in children with ASD. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis was carried out through searches in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases in relation to the topic of motor development in children with ASD, in the period between 2014 to 2021. For the data analysis, the Bibliometrix package and the Shiny UI for bibliometrix package (biblioshiny) were used, in addition to the Ms Excel® 2013 software for the presentation of tables and charts. An analysis corpus of 89 articles was obtained according to the eligibility criteria. The bibliometrics revealed a panorama of gaps in the educational area, because no publications were found in specific journals in the area. It is also referenced that studies of this nature are important to identify the tendencies in relation to the knowledge production, in order to map institutions, journals and the most published authors.