Oromotor skills in Autism


Based on review of research published between 1994 and 2022 on oromotor functioning in autistic individuals, 

key takeaways: 
  • Oromotor functioning plays a foundational role in spoken communication and feeding.
  • 81% of included 107 studies report a significant oromotor challenges related to speech production, nonspeech oromotor skills, or feeding 
  • Studies used various methods to investigate oromotor functioning in autistics
    • Behavioral measures -  tasks such as tongue protrusion, lip closure, and oral diadochokinesis. 
    • Parent report measures - questionnaires and interviews. 
    • Medical record review - examining medical records for information on feeding / swallowing difficulties. 
    • Neuroimaging techniques -  fMRI & MEG.
  • The findings suggest that oromotor challenges are common in autistics, but more research is needed to better understand the nature / extent and their impact on communication and feeding.
Some limitations of this paper include
  • numerous inclusion and exclusion criteria, which may have excluded relevant studies eg: non-English publications, pre 1994 studies etc
  • wide variation in studies re sample characteristics, behaviors analyzed, and research methodology, which makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. 
  • did not include a meta-analysis, which would have allowed for a quantitative synthesis of the findings across studies. 

Maffei MF, Chenausky KV, Gill SV, Tager-Flusberg H, Green JR. Oromotor skills in autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review. Autism Res. 2023 Apr 3. doi: 10.1002/aur.2923. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37010327.

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