Do You Know What I'm Saying? Strategies to Assess Motor Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout the person's lifetime. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about one in 88 U.S. children have ASD. It is usually diagnosed during childhood and is characterized by core symptoms that include qualitative impairment in social interaction and delays in the development of language and communication. Because of the cognitive, social, and language impairments in children with ASD, the implementation of strategies to ensure an accurate and successful motor-skill assessment should not be overlooked. Physical educators may need to take additional precautions as to how, who, what, and where a motor-skill assessment takes place. Specifically, motor-skill assessments of children with ASD may be affected by the way the assessment instructions are presented to the children, the individuals conducting the assessments, the tasks included in the assessments, and the environment in which the assessments take place. This article provides some guidelines and strategies for physical educators to conduct reliable assessments to evaluate the motor performance of children with ASD.