Asd and hand/finger strength

[fingerstrength]

Hi, my ds has asd and recently (well always but noticing more now he's getting older) he seems to have barely any strength in his hands, he can't open a packet of crisps for example, pull magnets apart, push down the trigger on a spray bottle.

Is this a normal part of asd and to do with fine motor skills?

Ds has asd but also has dyspraxia and these are some of the things he finds harder. I’d put that down to the dyspraxia though, rather than the asd. But I might be wrong.

Could be coordination, could also be sensory (experiencing discomfort or pain from the extra pressure). And anecdotally, a lot of people with ASD have some level of joint hypermobility, which can affect strength.

I don't think he has signs of hypermobility, he does tend to hurt himself alot (like he'll say he had a bad leg etc) but I just put that down to him being a boisterous 8 year old to be honest .

I don't think he'll ever be able to tie shoelaces or anything ! He doesn't say it hurts when he's trying to do these things, more like he just hasn't any strength behind him. He gets confused with the crisps like where to place his hands even though we've shown him hundreds of times. He has to use the palm of his hand to push down the trigger on a spray bottle

My nearly-14yo with ASC has hand joint mobility issues, which sound similar to your son's. His handwriting is affected as it's hard for him to hold a pen when his fingers bend back so much. He can't do shoelaces either and I suspect never will.

Sorry, meant to add, he doesn't have dyspraxia or other coordination issues, but some level of hypermobility often goes hand in hand with autism. His is limited to his fingers.

About half of people with ASD also have dyspraxia. Both my kids have been late to hold a pencil and found handwriting difficult.

Yes my son has this, his school have done a lot of fine motor skills exercises with him to improve his finger muscle strength which has helped his writing.

My son has dyspraxia (well, dyspraxic traits as he didn’t quite have enough to meet any criteria for much help) and did physio to develop hand strength etc. We were able to organise physio and ot because he also had a hip problem and various prem baby issues.

There is a correlation - ask if the school has access to a specialist teacher for physical disabilities (sounds extreme but it's often under the same umbrella) and ask your GP or school (depends on the route in your area) for referral to occupational therapy.

From your description it doesn't sound like laziness, so I'd guess he just needs to be allowed the time and practice and motivation to work on it as he develops, and he'll get as far as he gets… I don't know if there are any occupational therapy techniques that could help him develop strength and coordination in his fingers, but when it comes to motivation, wanting to get at his crisps is probably pretty high up the list.

I have ASD and couldn't tie shoelaces at that age despite being repeatedly taught and having attempted to learn by trial and error, but I think that's a problem with learning a complex sequence of coordinated movements rather than strength per se. I also couldn't write with a correct tripod grip, as my fingers didn't feel they had the strength to stop the pen skating everywhere, but that was actually a fine motor issue that just felt like a strength issue. I can do it now, and shoelaces too, so if it is a similar collection of issues to mine, it's possible for these things to improve.

Is it usual for eight year olds to be able to operate spray bottles one-handed? They've only got small hands so it wouldn't surprise me if the biomechanics make it a lot tougher, because of angles and levers and stuff?

Me and young adult ds are autistic. My hands are very weak. He is very hyper mobile and doesn't seem to have the strength to do his shoelaces up. I can do shoelaces, but my manual dexterity is quite poor and I fall over a lot, overbalance, trip up and bang into things so I suspect I'm dyspraxic.

Sorry I've only just come back to this thread. And thank you for the replies.

The schools senco had said she will refer my ds to the ot to "see if there is anything else going on"
What do you think she means by this ? And what would an ot do ? Would it be a referral to physio or something ?

I'm not sure it's dyspraxia as he can ride a bike etc he is clumsy but overall quite agile (apart from it seems like he has no strength)

He doesn't use pencil grippers at school anymore, he was quite annoyed when I asked him this lol very much "no I don't anymore!" It took him so long to stop using his fist though.
He also can't use scissors.

DS had his dyspraxia and dyslexia identified before the ASD. It's his fine motor that's more affected than his gross motor. He can ride a bike (grudgingly, he feels very insecure about it, but has a lot more skill than he credits himself with)

He has some hypermobility and his grip fatigues easily for tasks like writing and cutting. I have given up looking when he eats, he really struggles to manipulate cutlery, especially using both hands to co-ordinate a knife and fork.

He saw a OT in Feb 2020... not very sucessful though as he melts down very easily at attempts to adjust the way he uses tools.

T'other DS is dyspraxic with some hypermobility in his fingers too. He also struggles with fatigue when writing (and neat letter formation) but his general dexterity is better and he copes with feedback.

Bike-riding is gross motor skills; writing, scissors, shoelaces and crisp packets are fine motor skills. Some people have trouble with one, some the other, some both.

You can have dyspraxia impacting fine motor skills but average or good gross motor skills. My son walked at 10 months, can ride a bike, plays football and cricket. He's still dyspraxic, his handwriting is poor and it takes him forever to do shoelaces (and then they don't stay done up). EP said dyspraxia, OT said hypermobile wrist and thumb joints. Its well worth getting diagnosed properly before secondary even if you have to pay to go private. Cost us about £1200 for DS' assessments but well worth it.

ASD and HSD often go together.

I'm autistic and have dyspraxia and hypermobility spectrum disorder (though I've been referred back to rheumatology as it's likely I have the hypermobile subtype of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - also super common in autistic people).

Hand writing for more than a couple of minutes is painful and I often need tools to do basic tasks, like pliers to tighten/loosen everyday objects, and I have a scalp scrubber because I don't have the strength to manually wash my hair. It's worse when I'm tired - sometimes I'll get home after a long day and I can't undo my shoe laces or unbutton my clothes.

I'm also physically disabled (again I refer to my suspected EDS, currently diagnosed as hypermobility, fibromyalgia and POTS) and need a walking stick or rollator, but leaning on it means I end up with muscle fatigue in my hands and wrists

P.S. @BogRollBOGOF my mum gave up on trying to correct how I use cutlery. Firstly, I hold my knife and fork in the wrong hands and can't use them the other way. Secondly, my struggle to carry out two-handed tasks. She said it's like watching early man discovering tools

My son has ASD and is hypermobile. His physio gave him a stress ball (cut in half as he was quite young at the time) to squeeze to help develop his hand strength. Play doh and Lego are also great for developing hand and finger strength

Did your DS crawl when he was a baby? Neither of my DC did (DS1 went straight to walking, DS2 bum shuffled) - so they didn't develop hand strength that way.

I am autism and dyspraxia and hyper mobility and have this same problem! I always talking about my “rubbish hands” it is so frustrating

It's like we were late to the queue to get hands, and all that was left was washing up gloves filled with custard.

My DS2 has autism, dyspraxia and as a child was hypotonic (low muscle tone) and hypermobile. He's quite 'stiff' now (aged 25) but still very dyspraxic.

He was about 14 when he learned to tie laces (badly) and has the handwriting of a year 1 child, very badly formed letters (never managed cursive) and struggles with anything needing hand strength or dexterity.

Both my adult daughters have EDS (as does dh).. coordination much better but can't open jars!

Yes it's common for both to be present. Speak to OT.

My daughter gained hand strength from using theraputty.

www.royalberkshire.nhs.uk/media/f5rlklyf/theraputty-hand-strengthening-exercises_aug21.pdf

You can easily get theraputty online.

Aw@JarByTheDoor that is such a sad but brilliant description

OP - my autistic son also struggles but a mesh mat that is supposed to be used on car car dashboards to keep things in place is his kitchen support. It means he can open pretty much all bottles.

He also does hand exercises with squeezy balls and it has definitely improved his grip.