Physiotherapists Identify Movement Difficulties in Autistic Children Using Subjective and Objective Measures: An Observational Study.

Objective: To explore the assessment practices and identification of movement difficulties in autistic children aged 12 months to 6 years by physiotherapists in Australia.

Methods: Registered physiotherapists providing services to autistic children ages 12 months - 6 years completed a survey. The survey was distributed via closed physiotherapy social media (Facebook) pages in Australia from March to June 2022. The survey included 8 items on strategies/approaches to assessment, 47 items on measurement, and 23 items on movement difficulties.

Results: 85 physiotherapists completed the survey. Findings indicated that parent reports, observations, and movement analyses were the most commonly used assessment strategies employed 100% of time, followed by musculoskeletal assessments (80%) and standardized assessments (50%). Of standardized assessments used, Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) was used most, by over 69% of physiotherapists, with multiple versions of five other standardized assessments used by over 52% of physiotherapists, namely Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Neurological Sensory Motor Developmental Assessment, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire and Test of Gross Motor Development. A range of movement difficulties were frequently identified in developmental delays (86% of time), gross motor (85%), coordination (82%), motor planning (81%), and hypotonia (80%).

Conclusions: Physiotherapists in Australia use a variety of methods to examine movement difficulties in young autistic children, suggesting that this frequently occurs prior to autism diagnosis.