Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a heterogeneous and complex group of neurodevelopmental conditions, described with a current prevalence of 1 in every 36 children aged 8 years (1). In the last two decades, a growing literature has reported, in children and adults with ASD, peculiar sensory symptoms (atypical sensory processing, enhanced sensory discrimination, and impaired multisensory integration) (2), as well as several motor dysfunctions (among which reduced motor variability, clumsiness, anomalies of gait and posture and deficit of imitation skills) (3). This inspired the hypothesis that a reduction in long-distance cortical connectivity, as described in children with ASD, may be associated with a limited repertoire of sensory-motor behaviors aimed at environmental exploration (4). Indeed, according to several authors, children learn through performing actions in the surrounding world and experiencing the consequences to form cognitive constructs, thus the integration of information between different brain networks is vital for many functions including perception, learning, and performance of complex cognitive functions, such as social interaction and communication. Based on these hypotheses, ASD would emerge not as a higher-order social-cognitive deficit, but because of an impairment of the primordial ability to process low-level sensory and motor information gained through experience with other people since the earliest periods of life (5).
Despite the increasing focus on the topic, a clear link between sensory and motor behaviors and the cognitive, emotional, and social competencies of ASD children still lacking. Similarly, rehabilitative interventions based on this aspect are not sufficiently widespread nor linked to a coherent, complex, and nuanced picture of ASD children’s neurodevelopmental and learning trajectories.
In this scenario, this mini-symposium aims to report recent and innovative data from 4 different research groups, both highlighting the key role of the assessment of sensory-motor profile to better understand the global functioning of ASD children and providing the audience with several insights on the importance of sensory-motor perspective to programming and implementing individualized intervention in pre-school and school ages. In particular, 4 different aspects of this topic will be described and discussed: (i) dysfunctions of visual-haptic integration for object recognition, (ii) atypical manual object exploration, (iii) influence of sensory processing on posture and gait anomalies, (iv) disorders of interpersonal motor coordination and imitation skills.

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1 University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
2 University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
3 Villa S. Maria Foundation, Tavernerio (CO), Italy
4 IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Pisa, Italy