Children with ASD do indeed show overall worse performance on a handwriting task than do age- and intelligence-matched controls. More specifically, children with ASD show worse quality of forming letters but do not show differences in their ability to correctly size, align, and space their letters. Within the ASD group, motor skills were significantly predictive of handwriting performance, whereas age, gender, IQ, and visuospatial abilities were not.This is probably useful. Of all the possible causes for the general fact of autists having bad handwriting, they have narrowed it down to the fact that they have a hard time doing little stuff with their hands.
I wonder if it is dose related, i.e., if handwriting (or rather fine motor control) gets progressively worse as one moves through Aspergers to autism to dysfunctionality. My guess is not, or engineers would produce much sloppier drawings than they are noted for.
“Since the implementation of the "Back to Sleep" campaign, therapists are seeing increasing numbers of kindergarten-aged children who are unable to hold a pencil.”
ReplyDeleteSusan Syron, Pediatric Physical Therapist
“There are indications of a rapidly growing population of infants who show developmental abnormalities as a result of prolonged exposure to the supine position.”
Dr. Ralph Pelligra (Chief Medical Officer - NASA) regarding the impact of the Back to Sleep Campaign