2020 Gatlinburg Conference Symposium Submission

Overview: Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are both neurodevelopmental disorders with diagnostic classifications that do not explicitly include motor delays or impairments as diagnostic criteria. However, motor impairments are frequent and often significant in individuals with both idiopathic and genetically associated ID. In fact, for profound ID, a term Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD) is used to indicate that more pervasive impairments characterize many individuals, with motor deficits often prominent. Motor impairments have been studied less in ASD, but recent studies do show some evidence of lower adaptive functioning in the motor domain, compared to same-aged peers. However, very little research has focused on 1) understanding the intersection of how motor impairments, either early on or later in development, relate to neurodevelopmental outcomes, and 2) our ability to measure and accurately assess other important aspects of functioning in individuals with major motor impairments. Moreover, there may be significant confounding effects of cognitive or other areas of functioning (e.g. social-communication) on measurements of motor development.