Educating Children with Autism (2001) / Chapter Skim
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8 Sensory and Motor Development
8 Sensory and Motor Development
Pages 93-102
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From page 93... ...
Unusual sensory-perceptual reactions appear to be manifest in some children with autism as early as the first year of life (Baranek, 1999a; Dawson and Walling, 2000~. These types of behaviors appear neither universal nor specific to the disorder of autism, and there are no longitudinal studies systematically documenting developmental trajectories of these behaviors from infancy through childhood.
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From page 94... ...
Converging evidence, based on retrospective home video studies, demonstrates very early nonspecific sensory and motor difficulties in infants later diagnosed with autism. Stereotypic behaviors, under- and overreactions to auditory stimuli, unusual postures, and unstable visual attention were found to be characteristic of infants with autism, compared with those with other developmental disorders or with typical children.
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From page 95... ...
Specific gesture imitation was deficient in children with autistic spectrum disorders, although it did not account for all of the motor coordination deficits. Vocabulary size and accuracy of sign language in autistic children correlated highly with their performance on two measures of apraxia and with their fine motor age scores (Seal and Bonvillian, 1997~.
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From page 96... ...
Prevalence of Atypical Sensory Responses and Motor Stereotypies Standardized behavioral examinations demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of children with autistic spectrum disorders displayed atypical sensorimotor behaviors at some point during the toddler or preschool years, including both heightened sensitivities or reduced responsiveness across sensory modalities, and motility disturbances such as stereotypies (Ermer and Dunn, 1998; Kientz and Dunn, 1997; Rapin, 1996b)
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From page 97... ...
Maturational factors may affect sensory responses differently at varying developmental periods in children with autism. Sensory and Arousal Modulation Some of the unusual sensory processing and motor patterns seen in autism have been thought to result from problems in arousal modulation or habituation that result in withdrawal, rejection, or lack of response to sensory stimuli.
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From page 98... ...
In general, the quality of research in the existing assessments of the efficacy of sensorimotor interventions for autistic spectrum disorders has been relatively strong in external validity and the selection and definition of samples (see Figure 1-2 in Chapter 1) in comparison with studies in other areas.
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From page 99... ...
Sensory stimulation techniques vary but usually involve passive sensory stimulation; they are incorporated within the broader sensory integration programs or used in isolation. The underlying proviso is that a given sensory experience may facilitate or inhibit the nervous system and produce behavioral changes, such as arousal modulation.
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From page 100... ...
A recent review noted that for children treated with auditory integration therapy, objective electrophysiologic measures failed to demonstrate differences in hearing sensitivity between children with autism and controls, thereby questioning the overall premise of auditory integration therapy (Gravel, 1994~. A variation of auditory training programs applied to autism includes acoustic intervention: by using human voice instead of music, in theory, the stimulation alternatively challenges and relaxes the middle ear muscles to improve speech perception (forges, 1998~.
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From page 101... ...
As with auditory integration therapy, studies have not provided clear support for either its theoretical or its empirical basis. SENSORY AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING Motor development plays an important role in learning young children typically use motor skills to explore the environment, engage in social interactions, engage in physical activities, and develop basic academic skills, such as handwriting.
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From page 102... ...
Thus, ways of helping children with autistic spectrum disorders cope with unusual sensory responses within their ordinary environments or modifications to these environments might be expected to have more effects than would specific, one-to-one therapies (e.g., individual sensory integration treatment or individual sensory diets) or group treatments with unique stimuli (e.g., auditory integration therapy)
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