The relationship of social function with motor and speech functions in children with autism

Background: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, characterized by pervasive impairment in several areas of development, including social interactions and communication skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development profiles and determine the relationship of social function with motor and speech functions in children with autism. Methods: We collected the medical records of 32 children with autism. We used the Chinese Children Developmental Inventory (CCDI) to assess eight functional domains including: gross motor (GM), fine motor (FM), expressive language (EL), concept comprehension (CC), social comprehension (SC), self help (SH), personal social (PS), and general development (GD). The children were classified into group A if the PS development quotient (DQ) was equal to or higher than 50%, or they were classified into group B if the PSDQ was lower than 50%. We compared the DQ between the two groups. A value of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The developmental functions, including motor, speech, and self help functions in the autism group with high social function were better than those in the autism group with low social function. The DQs of all developmental function in group A (60-88%) were higher than those in group B (28-57%) (p<0.01). The gross motor and fine motor functions were better than speech and social function by 20 to 37% in both groups. Correlation analysis among developmental functions showed significant correlation (r=0.46-0.94, p<0.01). Using a stepwise linear regression test, the PS function was highly correlated with SC (r2=0.832, p<0.001). Conclusions: Autism is a multifaceted and disproportional developmental disorder. Social communication may play the dominant role in determining the social functions in children with autism.