Abstract
Visual, Spatial, and Motor Assessment are associated areas of a comprehensive evaluation for an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Visual Spatial skills include visual perception, visual closure, visual processing, and visual figure ground. Impairments may include visual tracking and planning, hand eye coordination, and reading a map. Measures often used to assess visual-spatial skills in ASD include the MVPT-3, Perceptual Reasoning tasks on the WISC-IV, Visual Spatial tasks on the WISC-V, Spatial tasks on the DAS-2 Preschool, The Beery Test of Visual Perception and the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) copy trial, or WMS-IV copy trial for Visual Reproduction. In the motor domain, children may have challenges with oral motor skills related to muscle tone that may include chewing, swallowing, and drooling. Fine motor deficits may relate to fine motor dexterity, handwriting, manipulation of beads or coins and can be assessed by a number of measures. In younger children, cognitive measures like the Mullen Scales include motor skills assessment. The Vineland-2 also provides sections for parents to report motor skills from birth to age six. Additional assessments like the Beery VMI Sequence, informal drawing and writing tasks, and the Grooved Pegboard can provide information on fine motor skills. By assessing these Associated Areas, a clinician can offer more targeted recommendations for treatment of these symptoms that may be present in an individual with ASD.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, J. S., Nielsen, J. A., Froehlich, A. L., DuBray, M. B., Druzgal, T. J., Cariello, A. N., … Lainhart, J. E. (2011). Functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging classification of autism. Brain, 134(Pt 12), 3742–3754. doi: 10.1093/brain/awr263.
Ankenman, K., Elgin, J., Sullivan, K., Vincent, L., & Bernier, R. (2014). Nonverbal and verbal cognitive discrepancy profiles in autism spectrum disorders: Influence of age and gender. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 119, 84–89.
Baron-Cohen, S. (2004). The cognitive neuroscience of autism. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 75(7), 945–948. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2003.018713.
Bowler, D. M., Gaigg, S. B., & Gardiner, J. M. (2009). Free recall learning of hierarchically organized lists by adults with Asperger’s syndrome: Additional evidence for diminished relational processing. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 589–595.
Butcher, J. N., Dahlstrom, W. G., Graham, J., Tellegen, A. M., & Kreammer, B. (1989). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (Mmpi-2): Manual for administration and scoring. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Hewerd, W. L. (2013). Applied behavior analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Flanagan, D. P., & Kaufman, A. S. (2004). Essentials of WISC-IV assessment. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Gould, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man. New York, NY: Norton.
Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Boston, MA: Brookes.
Iwata, B. A., Vollmer, T. R., & Zarcone, J. R. (1990). The experimental (functional) analysis of behavior disorders: Methodology, applications, and limitations. In A. C. Repp & N. N. Singh (Eds.), Perspectives on the use of nonaversive and aversive interventions for persons with developmental disabilities (pp. 301–330). Sycamore, IL: Sycamore.
Just, M. A., Cherkassky, V. L., Keller, T. A., Kana, R. K., & Minshew, N. J. (2007). Functional and anatomical cortical underconnectivity in autism: Evidence from an FMRI study of an executive function task and corpus callosum morphometry. Cerebral Cortex, 17(4), 951–961. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl006.
Lord, C., Cook, E. H., Leventhal, B. L., & Amaral, D. G. (2000). Autism spectrum disorders. Neuron, 28(2), 355–363.
Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview—Revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 659–685.
Meyer, N. (2014, December 26). MIT researcher’s new warning: At today’s rate, half of all U.S. children will be autistic by 2025. Retrieved January 3, 2015, from www.earthweareone.com
O’Connor, I., & Klein, P. (2004). Explorations of strategies for facilitating the reading comprehension of high-functioning students with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2), 115–127.
Osterling, J. A., Dawson, G., & Munson, J. A. (2002). Early recognition of 1-year-old infants with autism spectrum disorder versus mental retardation. Development and Psychopathology, 14(02), 239–251.
Rosenthal, M., Wallace, G. L., Lawson, R., Wills, M. C., Dixon, E., Yerys, B. E., & Kenworthy, L. (2013). Impairments in real-world executive function increase from childhood to adolescence in autism spectrum disorders. Neuropsychology, 27(1), 13–18. doi: 10.1037/a0031299.
Wahlberg, T. (2001). Language development and text comprehension in individuals with autism. Advances in Special Education, 14, 133–150.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kroncke, A.P., Willard, M., Huckabee, H. (2016). Visual, Spatial, and Motor Assessment. In: Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Contemporary Issues in Psychological Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25504-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25504-0_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25502-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25504-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)