Gross motor ability is associated with profound differences in how children experience and interact with their social world. A rapidly growing literature on motor development in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) indicates that autistic individuals exhibit impairment in gross motor skills. However, due to substantial heterogeneity across studies, it remains unclear which gross motor skills are impaired in ASD, when and for whom these differences emerge, and whether motor and social impairments are related. The present article addressed these questions by synthesizing research on gross motor skills in ASD in two separate meta-analyses. The first examined gross motor deficits in ASD compared to neurotypical (NT) controls, aggregating data from 114 studies representing 6,423 autistic and 2,941 NT individuals. Results demonstrated a significant overall deficit in gross motor skills in ASD (Hedges’ g = −1.04) that was robust to methodological and phenotypic variation and was significant at every level of the tested moderators. However, moderation analyses revealed that this deficit was most pronounced for object control skills (i.e., ball skills), clinical assessment measures, and movements of the upper extremities or the whole body. The second meta-analysis investigated whether gross motor and social skills are related in ASD, synthesizing data from 21 studies representing 654 autistic individuals. Findings revealed a modest but significant overall correlation between gross motor and social skills in ASD (r = 0.27). Collectively, results support the conclusion that motor deficits are tied to the core symptoms of ASD. Further research is needed to test the causality and directionality of this relationship.

中文翻译：

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粗大运动障碍及其与自闭症谱系障碍社交技能的关系：一项系统评价和两项荟萃分析。

粗大运动能力与儿童在社交世界中的体验和互动方式的深刻差异有关。关于自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 运动发育的快速增长的文献表明，自闭症患者的粗大运动技能受损。然而，由于研究之间存在很大的异质性，目前尚不清楚自闭症谱系障碍中哪些粗大运动技能受损，这些差异何时出现，针对哪些人出现，以及运动和社交障碍是否相关。本文通过在两个独立的荟萃分析中综合对 ASD 粗大运动技能的研究来解决这些问题。与神经典型 (NT) 对照相比，首次检查了 ASD 的粗大运动缺陷，汇总了代表 6,423 名自闭症患者和 2,941 名 NT 患者的 114 项研究的数据。g = −1.04) 对方法学和表型变异具有稳健性，并且在测试调节剂的每个水平上都很显着。然而，适度分析显示，这种缺陷在物体控制技能（即球技能）、临床评估措施以及上肢或全身运动方面最为明显。第二项荟萃分析调查了粗大运动技能和社交技能是否与 ASD 相关，综合了代表 654 名自闭症患者的 21 项研究的数据。调查结果显示，自闭症谱系障碍患者的粗大运动能力和社交技能之间存在适度但显着的总体相关性（r= 0.27）。总的来说，结果支持运动缺陷与 ASD 核心症状相关的结论。需要进一步的研究来检验这种关系的因果关系和方向性。