Motor Function and Visual Perceptual Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Background: Motor difficulties are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while visual-perceptual findings are heterogeneous and depend strongly on the construct and task used. Literature often uses visual perception, visual-motor integration (VMI), oculomotor control, visual attention, and visually guided action interchangeably, although these are not equivalent.
Aim: To critically synthesize evidence on motor skills and visual-perceptual abilities in children with ASD, and to distinguish direct motor–perception associations from VMI, visually guided motor control, visual attention/oculomotor findings, and indirect evidence from other developmental populations.
Evidence synthesis: Faber et al. (2022) examined motor performance, motor-free visual perception and visual-motor integration in the same children. Despite clear motor difficulties in the ASD group, correlations between motor-free visual perception and motor scores were not statistically significant. This is direct evidence about the association between the two constructs, although it is limited to the measures and participants studied. Other ASD studies describe visual-motor integration, eye movements, self-care or visually guided movement. These studies add important context but do not directly test whether motor-free visual perception is associated with standardized motor proficiency. Findings from developmental coordination disorder and typically developing children are informative but cannot be assumed to apply to ASD.
Conclusion: Motor difficulties are common in ASD, but the available evidence does not show a consistent relationship between standardized motor proficiency and motor-free visual perception. The distinction between perception, visual-motor integration and visually guided action is essential when interpreting studies and planning future research.