I wondered if there was any evidence that autistic people are more likely to have physical disabilities? Is there any research on this, whether it is more common in males or females, and whether this affects age of diagnosis?
The answer is a bit complicated and you will need to do searches on on-line databases but there is evidence for this.
1) There has been work (Teitelbaum) on the ways in which infants with later diagnosed ASD learn to turn over and many persons with ASD have motor planning problems.
2) Prenatal exposure to diseases like rubella can cause sensory impairments and autism (get immunized!)
3) Muscular dystrophy has been reported to be associated with ASD and can affect prognosis
4) Prenatal complications such as very low birth weight is also linked to later ASD (and sometimes with motor issues) and other birth complications are asssociated with motor issues as early as 1 month (see Karmel et al)
5)There is also evidence from ABR studies of delayed waveforms which can be seen early on
6) ASD is also linked to genetic disorders often associated with intellectual and motor delays such as FXS (which would affect sex ratios) and, of course, infantile spasms are linked to later ASD
These are just a few suggestions (see also the books by Mary Coleman on ASD)
I think the question is farily complex. If you look at our paper «clinical features of children who pass 18-month screening» you will see that the ASD groupd also show more motor development issues. And girls more than boys. But I think greater impairment and Intellectual disability affects also the motor domains, and thus as females might need a greater hit to meet criteria for ASD, it might be that they show more motor issues. Not a definitive answer, just some thoughts!
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