Balance analysis of autistic children during beam walking
Résumé
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterised by persistent deficits in communication and social interaction, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities. Although not included among the diagnostic criteria, motor disorders are also part of the clinical phenotype of ASD, and their origins are largely under-researched (Mosconi et al., 2015). Among these motor disorders, specificities in postural control and gait initiation have been identified (Benchekri et al., 2023), suggesting that balance mechanisms are impacted by ASD. Walking on a narrow beam requires the ability to maintain balance with a reduced base of support (BoS) along the medio-lateral (ML) direction. When balance is challenged, humans can use various strategies to increase stability, such as increasing the size of the BoS to enhance the whole-body centre of mass (CoM) shifts and/or rotating segments to modulate whole-body angular momentum (AM) (Hof, 2007). To rely on the “extend the BoS” strategy is limited when walking on a beam. Authors have shown that the main stabilisation strategy during this type of task focuses on regulating the AM of different body parts (Chiovetto et al., 2018) and also that a significant active control is required to stabilise motion especially along the ML axis (Bauby & Kuo, 2000). Assuming that children with ASD exhibit unique balance characteristics in motor tasks, it is important to explore the extent of their particularities by analysing their performance during challenging balance tasks such as beam walking.
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