TITLE:
Relationship between Motor Skill Impairments and Motor Imagery Ability in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Pilot Study Using the Hand Rotation Task
AUTHORS:
Shogo Hirata, Hideyuki Okuzumi, Yoshio Kitajima, Tomio Hosobuchi, Akio Nakai, Mitsuru Kokubun
KEYWORDS:
Autism Spectrum Disorders, Motor Skill Impairments, Motor Imagery, Hand Rotation, MABC-2
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.6 No.6,
May
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine
the relationship between motor skill impairments and motor imagery ability in
children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The participants were 19
children with ASD, aged 7 - 16 years. We conducted two tasks: movement
assessment battery for children-2 (MABC-2) and hand rotation task. The MABC-2
is a motor test that can assess total motor ability, and three sub-domain
abilities. Hand rotation is a cognitive task that can evaluate motor imagery
ability. Results indicated the possibility that severities of motor skill
impairments were interrelated with motor imagery ability in children with ASD.
First, fine motor control ability was strongly interrelated with the general
response speed of the hand rotation task. Second, balance ability was
interrelated with the fit and slope coefficients of the hand rotation task. The
internal modeling deficit seems to play an important role in children, either
with developmental coordina-tion disorder or ASD.