Fine-motor skills and ASD

[coppertop]

As you all probably know by now ds2 (23 mths) is being assessed by the multi-disciplinary team next month after being given a preliminary dx of ASD. I've been trying to write some notes as part of his early history/development report and I'm unsure about how relevant his fine-motor skills might be.

Ds1 (4.5yrs) had quite a big delay with his as his hands were hypersensitive and he avoided using them wherever possible. Ds2 is a bit more complex. He has always been left-handed and never really went through that stage of using both hands before deciding which hand he preferred. The other aspect of this is that his fine-motor skills seem to be way too advanced for his age. He has always held a pencil with a proper grip - never in his fist. When he draws he usually draws faces (with eyes, nose, mouth and hair), spirals, circles and the number 8. Our portage worker says that this would fit in with his rotation schema which makes sense to me. He's been feeding himself with a spoon (including loading it first) since about 9-10mths old. Not having had an NT child I didn't realise that this wasn't usual.

Now that I've finished rambling does anyone know if having advanced fine-motor skills can be a part of ASD or if this is unrelated?

[JakB]

Bumpety Bump

[Saker]

Coppertop, I am not best qualified to answer this but (in the absence of anyone else ) I would say that is very advanced in terms of drawing skills - not just in terms of pen control but actual perception and level of detail etc. I have read that autistic children can have specific areas of ability, drawing being quite a common one; I definitely think it's worth mentioning.

[redsky]

Not qualified to say but my gut reaction is that your ds's drawing skills are remarkably advanced and definitely worth mentioning.

[JaysMum]

Think you should mention it....J was walking at 8 months...his gross motor skills are excellent. He could ride a bike with out stabilisers at two and a half.
J was also feeding himself with his spoon very early
Drawing could be your ds's area of excellence, whereas J's is riding his bike and skateboarding!!
The deatil your son adds to his drawings could be his perseviration. Lots of ASD kids home in on specific detail.

[coppertop]

Drawing definitely seems to be his thing atm. Usually he spends his time rushing around in manic-mode but when it comes to drawing he will sit still for up to an hour.

[beccaboo]

Coppertop, I don't know if advanced fine motor skills can be part of ASD, but it does sound your ds2 could be quite ahead for his age.

My ds has ASD and has just turned 3, and he is the opposite, his fine motor skills are a bit behind, certainly as far as drawing is concerned. He holds a crayon in his fist and generally scribbles (it's always a picture of 'spaghetti & peas'!) and has very recently started doing a bit of colouring in, but will only do it for 5 minutes with lots of supervision. He's not interested in anything creative at all, and at nursery won't join in with cutting, playdough etc. I suspect he doesn't really see the point.

[JaysMum]

Each of our children are so different.
I know Blossoms daughter spend hours reading yet my ds can't read.
I have a friend who's daughter has AS and she is at art college. she said she gets so absorbed in her art work and the deatil in her drawings is so magnificant.
There are quite a few artists who have had AS. Pablo Picasso being the most famous and my all time favourite artist was Lechiwitz was the most unsociable person ever but then he said "I live in a world dominated by demons who do not understand the concepts of living a life affected by Autism".