Autism in Motion: Could Motor Problems Trigger Social Ones?

Kids battling physical awkwardness may miss crucial opportunities to learn about interaction.

About 80 percent of people with autism have some sort of movement problem, ranging from clumsiness or a mechanical style of walking to more profound difficulties like Macey’s. “It is very, very common for children with autism to have clear impairments in their motor control,” says Stewart Mostofsky, director of the Center for Neurodevelopmental and Imaging Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.