Highlighting the first 5 months of life: General movements in infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or Rett syndrome

Abstract

We review literature identifying an association between motor abnormality in the first 5 months of infancy and later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Rett syndrome (RTT). The assessment of the quality of early spontaneous movements (also known as the assessment of general movements; GMs) is a diagnostic tool that has repeatedly proven to be valuable in detecting early markers for neurodevelopmental disorders. Even though the rate of occurrence of abnormal GMs is exceedingly high in infants later diagnosed with ASD, we endorse further studies using this method either based on family videos or its prospective implementation in high-risk sibling studies to evaluate the power of GM assessment as one potential marker for early maldevelopment in this cohort.