Working in Movement

How do you know if a child shows signs of autism or Asperger's syndrome, the "mild" form of autism? Typically it can be through observing problems with social interactions and behavior, at age 3 for autism and 6 for Asperger's. But now a new study from a pair of psychology researchers at the University of Florida suggests that observing developmental movement patterns during infancy may provide much earlier clues; and earlier clues provides opportunity for earlier intervention. Infants movement patterns can signal a form of autism describes the recent study. (It can also be found here.)

To come to their conclusions on Asperger's kids, the researchers worked backward. That is, asked parents of kids diagnosed with the disorder to supply them with home videos of the kids when they were infants. In analyzing the 16 videos they received, they found disorders in some or all of the milestones of early motor development, including crawling, walking, lying down, sitting and the baby's ability to right themselves. In particular, they found asymmetrical movement patterns. From the article:

For example, some children crawled by stepping with the foot of the right leg and crawling with the knee of the left leg, or when lying prone, they extended the left arm forward to support the chest while the right arm was trapped beneath the chest, the Teitelbaums found. In addition, they discovered that when lying on their sides, babies with Asperger's syndrome would remain stuck there instead of smoothly turning over in a corkscrew fashion, first with the hips, followed by the torso and then the shoulders.

A portion of the kids couldn't sit independently at 6 months, and there were some problems with support in learning to walk.

Clumsiness is a trait of Asperger's syndrome, she said. ''From our preliminary observations, we have a strong tendency to believe that some of the clumsy characteristics seen in Asperger's syndrome are based on infantile reflexes gone astray,'' she said. ''When these reflexes persist too long or do not appear when they should, the motor development of the infant, and subsequently other aspects of his behavior, will be affected.''

The researchers suggest that swinging infants (in a playground or backyard swing) might be a good thing to do, since it stimulates the vestibular system and helps to regulate balance, which appears to be defective in those with autism and Asperger's syndrome.

It is this suggestion that I find so interesting here. Earlier posts have talked about movement "programming" the brain, and I normally think of that as a positive thing. But in the Asperger's babies, the asymmetrical patterns and trouble with righting might be important factors in later problems. It seems another blinding flash of the obvious to say the capability to support one's self is the foundation we build our experiences on. In the study's Asperger babies, it's almost like these kids literally don't learn to master the skill of standing on their own two feet, and everything else that's built on that faulty foundation becomes a little shaky. So at this early age, it may be possible to work with them to learn these crucial functions and that might take them in a different direction than they otherwise would have gone. But, what about later in life? How much impact can movement interventions provide?