For families
Nobody is checking how your child moves.
In the largest autism study in the country, almost nine in ten kids screened at risk for motor difficulties. Most of them are not getting any help with it. Here is the question to ask.
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What they found
Eleven thousand children, and one thing almost nobody was measuring.
Researchers looked at more than eleven thousand autistic children. The motor difficulties did not fade as the kids got older. In that same group, 83 percent were receiving occupational therapy and about a third were receiving physical therapy.
These are screening questionnaires filled out by parents, not clinical diagnoses, and school gym class was not counted, so real access to movement programs is somewhat better than 15 percent. It is still the least-provided thing on the list.
Why this happens
It is not your fault, and it is not your child's.
The physical therapists in that research said it themselves. They had received almost no training on working with autistic kids. They did not feel confident with the behavior and sensory side. And they said they saw their role as advising rather than running the ongoing physical work.
Nobody dropped the ball on your child specifically. The ball was never assigned to anybody.
Why it matters past the movement
Moving well is how a kid gets to explore, join in, keep up on a playground, and do things for themselves.
When movement is hard and nobody helps with it, kids stop trying, and it turns into a lifelong dislike of being physical. That is the part worth heading off early.
What to ask for
One sentence, at the next appointment.
"I'd like my child screened for motor coordination difficulties."There is a questionnaire called the DCD-Q. A parent fills it out, it takes a few minutes, and it is validated for ages 5 to 15. A pediatrician, physical therapist, or occupational therapist can run it.
If the screen flags something, ask two more things. What is the next step, and who does it. Then ask what happens after therapy ends, because that is the gap most families fall into.
If the person you care for is an adult
You are not imagining it.
Everything above stops at age 15, because the questionnaire stops at 15. Services are documented to drop off with age while the difficulties stay. Nobody has measured what happens to adults.
If you have felt like there is nothing out there for a grown person, that is a real gap and not something you missed.
Who made this
AdaptAbility Co, in Ferndale, Michigan. We made it because we got tired of this being nobody's job. If it is useful, print it, copy it, hand it to someone. If you take it to your child's doctor and never speak to us, the page did what it was built to do.
Motor work with the special needs community is what we do, so if you want to talk about it, the door is open.
Sources: Bhat, Physical Therapy 2020;100(4):633–644. Autism Research 2021;14(1):202–219. Autism 2023. SPARK cohort, n = 11,814 to 13,887. AdaptAbility Co has no affiliation with SPARK or the Simons Foundation. This page describes published research. It is not medical advice and it is not a diagnosis.