Can Autism Affect Motor Skills? Understanding Movement, Coordination and Motor Planning
- Kathryn Robinson BSc (Hons) MCSP
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Motor skills are much more complex than simply having strong muscles or flexible joints. There are many different systems involved in helping a child plan, organise and carry out movement, and these can all influence how a child participates in play and everyday activities.
How can autism affect movement and motor skills?
Movement is influenced by so much more than just our muscles and joints. Many complex systems affect how children move and participate in play and daily tasks. These include their motor planning, attention, sensory processing, motivation, communication and regulation.
Autism can present with changes in many of these body systems, so many children with Autism can have movement differences too.
One of the areas that can influence movement is motor planning.
What is motor planning?
Motor planning is the process of working out what movement to do and how to do it.
Some children with autism can enjoy repeating the same movements over and over rather than having a large repertoire of movements that they complete.
Learning a new physical skill can therefore take time, particularly when a child is working out how to organise and sequence their movements.
The role of practice, attention and motivation
Children learn new skills by practice and repetition, especially when things are tricky.
This requires attention to maintain the focus on developing the new skill and a motivation and desire to want to learn the new skill.
For example, if a child is not motivated to learn to hop or ride a bike, they are unlikely to give it the practice it needs to become embedded in their movement skills.
This is why finding ways to make practice meaningful and engaging for an individual child can be so important.
How can sensory processing affect motor skills?
Sensory processing is a huge topic that deserves its own series of blogs. Sensory information is passed to the brain about our bodies and our environment. This includes information about touch, movement, balance, vision and proprioception.
For some neurodivergent children, sensory information can feel overwhelming and difficult to interpret. This can affect body awareness, balance and co-ordination, thus affecting their motor skills.
Every child is different, and sensory processing can affect children in different ways. Understanding how a child experiences and responds to sensory information can therefore be an important part of supporting their movement and participation.
What can we do to help children with autism who have motor skill challenges?
There are a number of practical strategies that may help children develop their motor skills.
Show rather than just tell
Provide visual demonstrations of movements rather than just describing what the child needs to do. Seeing a movement can provide an additional way for a child to understand what is being asked of them.
Break movements into smaller steps
Break movements down into small steps and work on one small part at a time. A movement that feels complicated as a whole can become much more manageable when it is broken down into smaller, achievable stages.
Build in sensory and movement breaks
Give sensory and movement breaks where appropriate. Taking a break can help a child to regulate and be ready to return to the activity.
Use the child's interests
Use the child's interests to increase their engagement and motivation to practise. If an activity connects with something the child already enjoys, they may be more motivated to participate and practise the skill.
Allow additional processing time
Allow additional processing time.
Children may need a little longer to take in an instruction, work out what is being asked of them and plan their response. Giving them this time can help reduce pressure and allow them to work through the movement at their own pace.
Every child is different
Autism can present in many different ways, and not every child with autism will experience motor skill challenges.
For children who do experience difficulties with movement, coordination, balance or motor planning, understanding the different factors that may be influencing their movement can help us identify ways to support them.
At Total Children's Therapy, our multi-agency team takes a holistic approach to understanding children's individual strengths and needs. Looking at the whole child can help us consider not only their physical skills, but also the sensory, attention, communication, motivation and regulation factors that may influence how they participate in everyday activities.
This blog was written by Kat Robinson, Physiotherapist and member of the TCT neurodiversity diagnostic service multi-agency team.
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