IQ discrepancy differentiates levels of fine motor skills and their relationship in children with autism spectrum disorders

Tzu-Ying Yu; Willy Chou; Julie Chi Chow; Chien-Ho Lin; Li-Chen Tung; Kuan-Lin Chen

doi:10.2147/NDT.S153102

IQ discrepancy differentiates levels of fine motor skills and their relationship in children with autism spectrum disorders

Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2018 Feb 20:14:597-605. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S153102. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Tzu-Ying Yu¹, Willy Chou^{2

3}, Julie Chi Chow⁴, Chien-Ho Lin⁵, Li-Chen Tung^{2

6}, Kuan-Lin Chen^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung.
² Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi-Mei Medical Center.
³ Department of Recreation and Health Care Management, Cha Nan University of Pharmacy and Science.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan.
⁶ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Da Chien General Hospital, Miaoli.
⁷ Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University.
⁸ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.

Abstract

Purpose: We investigated 1) the impact of differences in intelligence quotient discrepancy (IQD) on motor skills of preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); 2) the relationships between IQD and motor skills in preschool-aged children with ASD.

Methods: A total of 127 ASD preschool-aged children were divided into three groups according to the size of the IQD: IQD within 1 standard deviation (1SD; EVENIQ; n=81), discrepantly higher verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ; n=22; VIQ>performance intelligence quotient [PIQ] above 1SD [≥15 points]), and discrepantly higher PIQ (n=24; PIQ>VIQ above 1SD [≥15 points]). Children's IQD and motor skills were determined with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence™ - Fourth Edition and the motor subtests of the Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and Toddlers (CDIIT), respectively.

Results: One-way analysis of variance revealed significant group differences for the fine motor domain of the CDIIT and the visual-motor coordination subtest (F=3.37-4.38, p<0.05). Children with discrepantly higher PIQ were associated with better fine motor skills than were children with even IQD and those with discrepantly higher VIQ, and vice versa. IQD (PIQ - VIQ) had significant positive correlations with the fine motor domain and fine motor subtests of the CDIIT (r=0.18-0.29, p<0.05).

Conclusion: The IQD can identify different levels of fine motor skills in preschool-aged children with ASD. This study suggests important implications for clinicians, therapists, and researchers: discrepantly higher PIQ could be related to better visual-motor coordination, and discrepantly higher VIQ could be related to poor visual-motor coordination. Furthermore, the results support that when therapists are working with preschool-aged children with ASD who are developing fine motor skills or undertaking fine motor tasks related to visual-motor coordination, they may need to pay attention to the children's IQD.

Keywords: autistic disorder; child; intelligence discrepancy; motor development.