Better Understand Motor Deficits Associated With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Development of an Assessment Protocol

Better Understand Motor Deficits Associated With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Development of an Assessment Protocol

This research is a case-control study aiming to characterize motor peculiarities (objective quantitative and qualitative measures) and its psycho-physiological correlates of children with ASD.

The main objective is to measure jointly and in an automated and standardized manner the performance and motor patterns within the framework of tasks measuring the performance and patterns of general motor skills (postures, walking, coordination overall), fine motor skills (graphics, pointing task) and oculomotricity (visual orientation and control).

The secondary objective is to investigate the relationships between motor difficulties and cognitive and social disorders found in children with ASD.

• Compare the motor performance data in the 3 major motor domains with each other (overall, fine and oculomotor);
• Evaluate intergroup differences based on clinical characteristics (ADOS-2, ADI-R, CARS 2 scores), age, IQ, socio-communication profile score (SRS-2) and presence comorbidities (TADH, TDC).

Inclusion Criteria :

All participants :

• Be between 6 and 11 years old
• Mastery of the French language
• Be affiliated with a Social Security scheme or benefit from affiliation by a third person
• Both parents (or the holder of legal authority) have read, understood and signed the study consent
• Be affiliated with social security

Participants with ASD should also verify the following inclusion criteria:

• Being diagnosed with ASD (DSM-V)

Exclusion Criteria :

All participants :

• Refusal to participate in the research on the part of the participant and / or holders of parental authority.
• Be a person benefiting from enhanced protection, namely : persons deprived of their liberty by a judicial or administrative decision, persons staying in a health or social establishment.
• Have uncorrected visual or hearing problems
• To have concomitant psychotropic drug treatments not stabilized, initiated in the last 2 months: antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anti-epileptics, psychostimulants, antidepressants.
• Have a motor handicap of the upper or lower limbs, fitted or not.
• Have diagnosed neurological or psychiatric disorders, present a general or metabolic pathology having a known impact on the child's motor skills (eg: Epilepsy, Tics and Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome, Intellectual Deficiency, Neuromuscular Syndrome, Metabolic Neurological Syndrome , neoplasms)
• Suspicion of low intellectual efficiency if at least one of the two subtests (Similarities or Matrices) of WISC V (retrieved from the medical file if the TSA participant) presents a result (standard score) strictly lower than 7.

Participants without ASD :

• Participant with ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity) or CDD (Developmental Coordination Disorder)