Based on review of research published between 1994 and 2022 on oromotor functioning in autistic individuals,
key takeaways:
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.
- 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.
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