New autism research finds that although an estimated 87% of children with autism exhibit motor challenges, only a small number (32%) receive motor specific treatment. Motor skills play an important role in development, and sometimes they are treated as behavior issues when the difficulty is really with the required motor movement.
Eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, eating, playing, and daily living skills like dressing and teeth brushing are all examples of motor skills that we want children to be able to do independently.
At Prism, we incorporate daily movement into our play-based therapy. Our therapists engage children in gross motor play (as seen below with obstacle courses) as one of the ways they work on treatment plan goals that focus on motor movement.
To read the motor skills research article mentioned above: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11920-021-01280-6
