Autism: The Movement (Sensing) Perspective a Decade Later

A decade ago, in 2013, the Research Topic "Autism the Movement Perspective", proposed the radical idea that using movement and its sensations could help us better understand the many complex layers of autism spectrum disorders. Inspired by earlier work from other fields, the work positioned front and center approaches from neuromotor control, infusing the research with new computational ideas to study autism across the human lifespan. Through the lens of motor variability as a form of kinesthetic reafference, causal inference and predictive codes, the Research Topic brought together a group of researchers, parents, practitioners, and self-advocates to rethink autism as sensory motor differences contributing to the emergence of powerful coping mechanisms that advanced our understanding of how the human brain develops and functions. Today, with new improvements in biosensing technologies, and neuroscience, and the embodied and affective psychology on which development is based, we revisit this Research Topic, approaching autism anew through a modernized lens of precision aimed at enabling socio-motor agency.

Over several decades, autistic people have expressed their motor difficulties and differences, from birth, in sensory processing and sensory-motor integration that affect their daily lives and their interactions with others. Despite this consensus and the mounting evidence on motor and sensory differences in autism, very little attention and few resources have been devoted to the development of research that generates the knowledge and technology to support the motor aspect of autism. Therapies in autism lack fundamental attention to its motor components to better integrate self-generated movement with their sensations and the sensations from other external sources, including the movements of others in the social scene. Despite considerable gains in the last ten years in science and theory, more work is needed to advance the movement (sensing) perspective in autism therapy, to include recognition of its proprioceptive, interoceptive, vestibular and kinaesthetic, pain and temperature aspects. This Research Topic will bring together scientists, self-advocates, parents, therapists, and entrepreneurs to introduce the latest scientific and technological advances aimed at creating a new scalable model of science that enables diversification of treatments, true inclusion and societal acceptance embracing independence, autonomy, and control by the autistic person to promote social agency.

The Research Topic welcomes all types of articles: Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Mini-Review, Hypothesis and Theory, Perspective, Clinical Trial, Case Report, Data Report, Brief Research Report, General Commentary, Opinion, and Technology and Code. Contributors are encouraged to address themes related to movement, sensory-motor issues, technologies, exercise programs, sports programs, emerging new treatments for autism, new communication methods, augmentative technologies, health, and mobility issues, among others.

Topic Editor, Dr. Susan Crawford, is CEO of Movement Experts Ireland and is the creator of The GetAutismActive Programme and Resource Kit. Topic Editor, Dr. Ashok Srinivasan, is Chief Scientific Officer of Autism Impact Fund. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests.