Motor Planning, Motor Control & Motor Learning

Consider the discussion on motor planning, motor control, and motor learning – describe:
1. The type of practice (i.e.: random or blocked) and the type of tasks (continuous or discrete) that may be used to promote verbal communication skills in children during social activity.

-Frietag et al (2008, p. 2) state that “It might be possible that difficulties in biological motion perception might underlie these impairments, imitation and joint attention skills, that are strongly linked to later social and language development.” As those with ASD have motor planning issues for gross or fine motor skills such as body language and speech, it is known they also have social impairments. These skills may be worked on together. The below task and practice types will be used in treatments below. Those with an asterisk are preferred or more beneficial to the student as per research.

-Type of Practice:
*Random -preferred -different target can be practiced intermixed, facilitates chunking, greater transfer and retention, skill gets stronger with an increase in practice, closer to daily life situations, enhances motor learning (Maas et al, 2008,p. 282 and 285), more complex speech taught before simpler will transfer to simpler speech skill development (Maas, 2008, p. 287) ex. Blends will lead to single sounds, speech may lead to non-speech development and movements for speech.
Blocked- different targets practiced in separate, successive blocks of the treatment phase, enhances performances during practice
-Type of Tasks:
*Continuous-natural environment, child led, play, incidental teaching, attention to multiple cues (Delprato, 2001, p. 316), leads to much higher speech intelligibility (study in Delprato, 2001, p. 322), normalized procedures are effective in teaching and language learning such as during free play (Delprato, 2001, p. 317).
Discrete- less effective (Delprato, 2001), maybe good initially?, highly structured, direct instruction with reinforcers, reinforcers may not be naturalistic. This may not apply to social verbal communication well.

2. Provide 2 treatment activities and how you would apply principles of task and practice to promote motor learning to help the child develop social skills with improved communicative understanding of others and expressed self-intent.

- Prepractice enables the individual with ASD to become accustomed to the methods of practice and feedback. (Maas, 2008, p. 292). This may actually be more discrete although random is preferred. It will prepare the child with ASD for motions, expectations, sensations, interactions, materials, etc. It may also help increase motivation as stress with be decreased. Rogers et al. (2003, p. 763) reports that imitation leads to early peer interaction. Also, being imitated can lead to “increased social initiative, orienting and engagement after adults imitated their actions with objects” (p. 765) however this aspect of play is less impaired than movements without objects. It seems a likely place to start and then expand to motor imitations since imitation of body and face lead to speech development (p. 765).

-My first treatment activity would be to use video clips to analyze play motions, social cues and speech/communication. Practice would be discrete and task would be a blend of blocked and continuous. This is because it is not in a natural environment but the skills can be monitored and discussed, analyzed and practiced/role-played together rather than repeatedly discussing one aspect (body awareness/space, physical task demands, environmental factors, sensory factors, body language, facial expressions, communication/speech, etc.). Brinton et al (2004, p. 285) note that a student who had this treatment “increased his awareness of social, emotional and contextual information needed to function appropriately in conversation.” I feel this is a good idea since it has feeds on some strengths of those with ASD such as visual input and memorization of lines. The clips will vary from in school free time, recess (sandbox, teeter-totter, swings, climbing equipment, etc.) and after school activities. This will assist the student in “anticipation, coordination and adaptation” (Schmitz, 2003, p. 17). This coincides also with Trecker and Miller-Kuhaneck (2004, p. 197-8) who mention that sensory input assists with body maps and imitation is a building block in play for new motor plans. They do suggest simple first then to more complex which is in contrast to other authors. I think it will be individualized to the particular student. Tanta (2004, p. 160) mentions using random practice and continuous tasks as teaching play scripts during incidental teaching moments is one good strategy. Others include context modification, peer mediation, predictable play routines, and child-directed strategies such as at recess. Maas (2008, p. 279 and 281)discusses the structure of practice of a schema or generalized motor program provides various types of information associated with each movement.” Like Tanta, Brinton et al, 2004, p. 286) mention playing a conversation game on preselected topics. Turn taking is developed. Practice is definitely blocked with discrete tasks and is highly structured. An example is “Make one comment on the topic, ask a question, and listen to the response.” The video clips of play sessions will be watched and analyzed and role-played in therapy. If needed, it could be reverted back to this more basic level of treatment. The same could be done with motor acts of the body or for speech depending on the student’s needs.

-The second treatment activity will definitely follow the random practice and continuous task route. The first treatment was more preparatory and this will be more naturalistic. It will occur during an indoor or outdoor recess. A peer or two may also have been prepared for the play and how to guide the child with ASD, what to expect and how to praise/respond to that particular individual. Tanta (2004, p. 163) discussed how to choose a peer or group for intervention: peer affect/high positive peer interactions, gender-often same sex is age appropriate and it may influence materials chosen to play with, developmental level- different chronological and developmental ages promote various types of play. I had a small group of a male child in regular education, a male self-contained student who was high on the spectrum and a female who is more involved who attends the ABA classroom. Although her speech and motor abilities were significantly more delayed. The three eventually became a very social and active/interactive group. Each contributed their own personal strengths to make it a cohesive and almost self-sufficient group for many goals/objectives. I think incidental teaching is really effective. I have done many sessions on the playground incorporating as many students as I could handle (especially if I had a specific activity planned/number of materials). When you bring novel materials to the playground, it increased typical peer interest as well. It benefits the child who receives Occupational therapy as they would have had experience with the materials in prior sessions. No matter what level of communication the student is at, I would defer questions and comments to the student. If the other students were all involved in a game or on equipment, I would encourage the student to go select whoever they wanted to play with. Student motivation, skill level/readiness, and sensory needs will all need to be taken into consideration. Hopefully, the first treatment will have be selected appropriately and they had the desire to practice and then to learn so they can function physically and socially in a natural setting.


Brinton et al. (July 2004). Description of a Program for Social Language Intervention: “If You Can Have a Conversation, You Can Have a Relationship.” Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, v35, p. 283-290.
Delprato (2001). Comparisons of Discrete-Trials and Normalized Behavioral Language Intervention for Young children with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, v31,n 13, p. 315-325.
Frietag et al (2008). Perception of biological Motion in Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Neuropsychological. p. 1-15.
Maas et al. (August 2008). Principles of Motor Learning in Treatment of Motor Speech Disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, v17, p. 277-298.
Rogers et al (2003) Imitation Performance in Toddlers with Autism and Those with Other Developmental Disorders. Journal of Child Psychology, v 44, n5, p. 763-781
Schmidtz, C., Martineau, J., Barthelemy, C. and Assaiante, C. (May 2003). Motor control and children with autism: deficit of anticipatory function? Neuroscience Letters 348, p. 17-20.
Tanta, K. (in Miller-Kuhaneck 2004). Promoting Peer Interaction in Children With an Autism Spectrum Disorder. (chapter 7, p. 155-170), Autism a Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Approach 2nd edition. Bethesda, MD: The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.
Trecker, A. and Miller-Kuhaneck, H. (in Miller-Kuhaneck 2004). Play and Praxis in Children With an Autism Spectrum Disorder (chapter 9, p. 193-213), Autism a Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Approach 2nd edition. Bethesda, MD: The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.