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. 2020 Dec;50(12):4367-4384.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04489-1.

Early Motor Differences in Infants at Elevated Likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Jannath Begum Ali  1 , Tony Charman  2 , Mark H Johnson  3   4 , Emily J H Jones  3 ; and the BASIS/STAARS Team
Affiliations

Early Motor Differences in Infants at Elevated Likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Jannath Begum Ali et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

We investigated infant's manual motor behaviour; specifically behaviours crossing the body midline. Infants at elevated likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) produced fewer manual behaviours that cross the midline compared to infants with a typical likelihood of developing these disorders; however this effect was limited to 10-month-olds and not apparent at age 5 and 14 months. Although, midline crossing did not predict ASD traits, it was related to ADHD traits at 2 years of age. We rule out motor ability and hand dominance as possible explanations for this pattern of behaviour, positing that these results may be a consequence of multisensory integration abilities, and the neurobehavioural shift period, in the first year of life.

Keywords: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Autism spectrum disorder; Midline crossing; Motor ability; Reaching.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Photo of an infant completing the Blocks task. a ‘contralateral hand movement’ and b ‘contralateral reach’
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Graph showing the total number of contralateral behaviours across likelihood and age group
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Graph showing the number of contralateral behaviours across likelihood and age groups. a Contralateral reaches, b contralateral hand movements and c contralateral object manipulations
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Graph showing the number of ipsilateral behaviours across likelihood and age group. a The total number of ipsilateral behaviours, b the number of ipsilateral reaches, c the number of ipsilateral hand movements and d the number of ipsilateral object manipulations
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Graph showing the proportion of contralateral and ipsilateral behaviours across likelihood and age groups. a The contralateral and ipsilateral behaviours across all types of behaviour, b the proportion of contralateral and ipsilateral reaches, c the proportion of contralateral and ipsilateral hand movements and d the proportion of contralateral and ipsilateral object manipulations
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Graph showing the total number of contralateral behaviours at 10 months against ADHD subscale raw scores on the CBCL. Outliers outlined in red
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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