Writing Study Ties Autism To Motor-Skill Problems

This is a story from NPR. So many of the things mentioned are things that Lewis has struggled with and so I found it particularly interesting and thought I'd share it. He's just starting to write and so it makes us wonder what he may face in the future. Listen to the story here.

by Jon Hamilton

November 11, 2009
Many children with autism not only struggle with social skills and communication, they also have great difficulty with handwriting, according to a new study in the journal Neurology.

Researchers compared 14 typical children with 14 diagnosed with mild autism - and found that the children with autism had much more difficulty forming letters. "It was really striking," says Amy Bastian, a neuroscientist who directs the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

What Parents Already Knew

The finding offers scientific evidence of something parents have been saying for years, says Barbara Wagner, whose son Austin, 14, was one of the children on the autism spectrum who took part in the study.

Wagner says Austin's struggle with handwriting began when he got to first grade."He would have nights when it took three hours to do homework," she says. Austin is bright and understood the assignments, Wagner says. What was hard for him was the act of writing. "He doesn't actually write like you or I would write," Wagner says. "He draws his letters. It was almost painful to watch."

And Wagner says things got even worse when he had to do written exercises in class. All the other students would be done, while he was still writing.

As a part of the study, the sentence at the top was copied by children with and without autism. In the sample shown above, both of these children have autism, however the middle handwriting sample scored much higher. Things got better for Austin when he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and his school allowed him to answer questions verbally, or type on a keyboard.

Motor Skills Linked To Communication

The handwriting issue on its own is a major impediment for many children with autism, Bastian says. But it's also indicative of a much larger problem with motor skills, she says. Many have trouble holding a fork, buttoning a shirt, or tying their shoelaces.

And these problems with motor skills may carry over into social interactions, Bastian says. "These are the kids that are going to get picked last for kickball," she says. "These are the kids who are clumsy, who already have difficulty relating to other kids. And the motor component probably makes things worse."

Bastian says a lack of motor skills can also make it harder to communicate through subtle gestures and facial expressions. And people who can't make these gestures and expressions themselves often have trouble understanding what they mean when other people use them. The inability to read faces and gestures is a hallmark of autism.

Other researchers say motor skills may offer a way to help spot children with autism as early as the first few months of life. A study of babies who were later diagnosed as autistic were late reaching milestones such as sitting up, standing on their own and walking, says Dr. Sarah Spence, a pediatric neurologist at the National Institute of Mental Health who helped conduct the study.

Spence says writing and all of these other skills rely on a process called motor planning, in which the brain gets itself geared up to carry out an action such as walking or talking. So it's possible that some nonverbal children with autism actually want to speak, but lack the motor planning capacity.

brotherly love

Lewis and Owen spend a lot of time together. Together might be a strong word, since Owen is constantly chasing Lewis and Lewis is constantly avoiding Owen. But they do interact more and more as Owen gets bigger and is able to demand our attention! Justin set the boys up on this tree stump in our yard the other day so that they would have a good view of a train going by (see above picture). Since then Lewis has requested to sit up there on a couple of occasions, and we've taken more pics.



Owen is becoming a very cuddly little guy. He loves snuggling with his blankie at bedtime (he calls it "guh guh"). But he also likes to give kisses randomly, and even hugged me all through Kroger today. He would lean forward out of the cart and just hold onto me. Funny child! He's very sweet, and loves his big brother. Owen is also much easier to wake up than Lewis. We took a little video of Owen helping to wake Lewis up after a nap a few days ago. Oddly, his kisses aren't making contact (it looked like he was only getting to the edge of Lewis' hair), but the sentiment is here!



Owen is starting to make a lot more vocalizations recently. He is saying:
"ba" for ball
"dada" for dad
"guh guh" for blankie
"ca kuh" for cracker
"boo" for balloon, and sometime blue
"my" for mine
"baah" what a sheep says
other animal sounds:
elephant
lion
kitty cat

He mimics the "k" sound, and even said "mama" today, but is not consistent with it yet. It was very nice hearing it though! He is producing a lot of good gibberish that sounds like "boodah boodah buh." He's also signing some. He's signing "more", "please", "milk", "mine", "all done", and "open." He's trying to shake his head 'no' too. Still no true pointing, which concerns us, and he's not figured out how to stand up without pulling up on something. Not a huge deal, but an oddity nonetheless!

Lewis, on the other hand, continues to progress with potty training. He requested to go poopy the other day and said "no poopy in underwear" because he'd had the slightest accident over the weekend where he didn't make it quite in time. Typically we just take him to the potty on a schedule and ask him every time if he's all done or needs to do more. The last couple of days he's been asking to go, and heading to the potty on his own (though he still needs help when he gets there). His accidents have been few and far between (once a week maybe), and he even wakes up dry 90% of the time, but taking the initiative is a huge step. The internal potty clock is always ticking, and thankfully everyone has adjusted (school, church nursery, our therapists) to keep Lewis from having accidents. It will be wonderful when the potty is totally Lewis-directed.

One other random note: Lewis has a knack for learning how to spell names. He's been using his toy computer to type his name and now can spell and type Owen, Krista, Mandy, mom and dad.

This last picture is of Lewis next to a fire truck. He's become obsessed with fire alarms, and points them out every time he sees one. Today he almost pulled one that was way down low at the Medical Center when we were leaving speech therapy. Anyway, he was excited at first to see this fire truck, but quickly lost interest and started staring at leaves on the ground. It just struck me as funny!

lewis in the paper

Lewis' apple eating was featured in the local paper yesterday. Of course, they did not know how significant this particular apple was for our boy, but it is funny that this picture was the main one on the story about healthy snacks at his school. We do know this photographer.......maybe he did us a favor? Anyway, thought we share it with you and the link to the full story.


Joe Imel/Daily News
Parker-Bennett-Curry Elementary School students Myles Brashear (from left), 4, Zane Grinstead, 4, Kaleb Schrimsher, 4, Cheyne Britt, 4, and Lewis Shepherd, 3, snack on apples Monday.

apples and leaves

Yesterday I arrived at school to pick up Lewis and was SHOCKED to find him eating an apple! He was sitting outside with his aide taking big bites, like it was no big deal. Apparently there is a new grant that is providing every child at his school with a nutritious snack (sounds like mostly fruit) every day! Hopefully he will respond to other fruits like this. When we got home he ran to the new slide that the grandparents Shepherd bestowed upon us this weekend, and proceeded to sit at the top until he mostly finished the apple. He even ate some of the core.

Here are a couple pics.


And a video.



His teacher's theory is that he saw the other kids eating apples and joined in when told to eat his apple. She sent me this picture from their Halloween party which makes us think he may have been dreaming of apples for the last couple weeks. Either way, it is a huge step in the right direction!


We have been playing outside quite a bit since the weather has been nice. The boys both love the slide, and it has given Lewis an opportunity for some pretend play. He's been sending babies, stuffed toys, and his beloved trains for rides down the slide. Here is Toby finishing up a ride down.


Owen has been loving walking around in the leaves! He is so happy outside, and his walking skills are good enough that he can handle some leaves and sticks here and there.

halloween fun

Yesterday was filled with spooky fun. Lewis and I headed to a birthday/costume party just after lunch. Our friend from church, John Stark Logan, is turning 3 this week, and his family pulled out all the stops. Lewis was a cowboy. My grandfather, Marrion Ledbetter, was a real cowboy in Texas, so this could be a good career option in the future.

Lewis liked this sign and the balloon floating above it.

John Stark was Mickey Mouse, and we got to ride this wagon around the neighborhood. It was pretty fun.

After the party, my sister, Ellen, came to visit and we all went trick or treating in Fountain Square. Here's a video of Owen getting used to his dinosaur costume.



Lewis insisted on carrying two pumpkins (his and Owen's) as we walked around. He did great saying "trick or treat" which was a big difference from last year when he used signs for "candy please." He was very excited about the candy this year too, and would say "get more candy!" in between stops.

We were really impressed by the great candy the business people in the square were giving out. This was much better than all the hard candy you get at the mall.

After we went all the way around, we stopped in at Spencer's for a potty break and Owen got to walk around in his dinosaur costume. We quizzed Lewis about Halloween.



The boys with Aunt Ellen. Lewis enjoying his blue lollipop.

Me and my little dinosaur.

Next we headed to Aunt Monica's (Justin's sister) who lives in town.

Aunt Monnie and the boys.


Reggie (aka Michael Jackson), Monica, Owenisaurus and Justin.


We had dinner at Steak n' Shake after that. Owen was acting crazy, maybe it was due to the sugar he'd eaten. Here's a video of some of his antics.



When we got home, Lewis and daddy checked out the stash of candy.

Owen wanted to see for himself. It was a fun and exhausting day!

hi seeds

This is a conversation I had with Lewis while carving our pumpkin. This is a very typical conversation for us right now where he wants to repeat the same phrases over and over (echolalia) and it's hard to get him to even hear what I'm saying sometimes. We are thrilled that he is talking, but we are looking forward to more meaningful conversation! He is such a happy child. :)