Objective To explore whether autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children can rely on visual feedback to improve motor learning adaptability, so as to reveal the biological basis of perceptual-motor integration in ASD children and to provide empirical evidence and theoretical support for developing motor intervention based on adaptive difficulty regulation. Methods From July 2022 to December 2023, 21 children with ASD who received rehabilitation training at the Wuhan Linjie Children′s Rehabilitation Service Center, as well as 21 typically developing (TD) children attending five primary schools and kindergartens in Wuhan, participated in a computerized visuomotor adaptation experiment.The experiment consisted of three phases: baseline, adaptation (with a 30° counterclockwise rotation of visual feedback), and post-adaptation.Directional error (DE), movement time (MT), and root mean square error (RMSE) were selected to examine visuomotor learning ability. Results During the adaptation phase, as the number of exercises increased, both ASD and TD children showed significant improvements in DE, MT, and RMSE (F=5.445, 13.473, 11.196, P<0.05), and there were no significant differences between the two groups (P>0.05).In the post-adaptation phase, ASD children showed a significantly greater improvement in RMSE compared to their baseline performance (t=2.275, P<0.05) and this improvement was significantly greater than that of TD children (t=2.112, P<0.05). Conclusions ASD children can update their internal model through visual feedback, especially in motor control ability.Future motor learning and intervention programs for children with ASD should incorporate specific visual aids to improve intervention outcomes.
Key words
autism spectrum disorder /
motor learning /
visual feedback rotation /
visuomotor adaptation
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