Language and motor skills: preschool predictors of academic achievement in autism

A fairly quick post for your reading delight today as I bring the paper by Miller and colleagues [1] to your attention suggesting that: "Early intervention targeting language and motor skills may improve later achievement in this population."

'This population' referred to a small cohort (N=26) of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who were examined "at the approximate ages of two, four, and ten" years with regards to their academic achievement and the variables that might be important to 'successful' achievements.

Including some familiar names when it comes to the concept of 'outcome' in relation to autism ('optimal outcome' that is), researchers determined a few potentially important relationships from their collected data: "Preschool verbal abilities significantly predicted school-age reading comprehension" and "early motor functioning predicted later math skills."

I'm not entirely surprised that infancy verbal (talking) abilities might play a role in later reading comprehension but I was rather more intrigued by the observation potentially linking motor skills to later maths abilities. Yes, I get that children learn to count on their fingers (and toes) and no doubt this and other scenarios might influence the connection between the two, but it strikes me that this connection requires quite a bit more study [2]. Indeed, welcoming the idea that motor skills are an important issue with regards to autism (see here) and that maths ability is 'as varied as the label of autism is itself' (see here) the idea that the archetypal all-rounder that is the occupational therapist (OT) might have a key role here is rather interesting (see here).

I'm also minded to suggest that a certain sport/discipline that I'm particularly fond of on this blog (the martial arts) might have some rather far-reaching 'mathematical' effects if one considers it's application to autism and motor functioning...

To close, Marvel are going full-strength with their next Wolverine film instalment titled 'Logan'...

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[1] Miller LE. et al. Preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in autism spectrum disorder. Clin Neuropsychol. 2016 Oct 5:1-22.

[2] Pitchford NJ. et al. Fine Motor Skills Predict Maths Ability Better than They Predict Reading Ability in the Early Primary School Years. Front Psychol. 2016 May 30;7:783.

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Miller LE, Burke JD, Troyb E, Knoch K, Herlihy LE, & Fein DA (2016). Preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in autism spectrum disorder. The Clinical neuropsychologist, 1-22 PMID: 27705180

Fatty acids and reading ability replicated

I'm a fan of scientific replication on this blog. Y'know, when one group comes out with some new marvellous research findings and another [independent] group says 'yep, we found that too'.

It is with that sentiment in mind that I'm talking about the results published by Mats Johnson and colleagues [1] who suggested that "3 months of Omega 3/6 treatment improved reading ability" following a "3-month parallel, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial" with schoolchildren aged 9-10 years old. The trial was actually a little longer than 3 months given that it also included a 3-month active treatment period for all subjects. The replication angle harks back to another study [2] that has been mentioned on this blog (see here) and that concluded: "DHA [docosahexaenoic acid] supplementation appears to offer a safe and effective way to improve reading and behavior in healthy but underperforming children from mainstream schools."

The Johnson paper, whose ClinicalTrials.gov records can be found here, utilised a gold-standard methodology when it came to testing whether a particular fatty acid formulation - "a daily dose of 558 mg EPA [eicosapentaenoic acid], 174 mg DHA, and 60 mg gamma-linolenic acid" - could improve the reading ability of mainstream schooled children. The primary outcome being measured were any changes to the LOGOS test as well as whether fatty acid intervention also impacted on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, bearing in mind those formally diagnosed with ADHD were supposed to have been excluded from the study. The behavioural side of things also coming from some history with fatty acids there too (see here).

Results: "Compared with placebo, 3 months of Omega 3/6 treatment improved reading ability – specifically the clinically relevant ‘phonologic decoding time’ and ‘visual analysis time’ – in mainstream schoolchildren. In particular, children with attention problems showed treatment benefits." The placebo by the way, was palm oil. Importantly too, side-effects described during the study were fairly rare and mild: "mainly stomach pain/diarrhea (active n = 9, placebo n = 2)." I should also mention that the participant size was over a hundred when it came to those who completed the study so these results are not to be sniffed at.

I'd like to think that these and the various other results out there on this topic will start to be taken seriously some time soon. I know that there has been a lot of hype associated with fatty acids down the years, but the science is growing ever stronger to suggest that such preparations probably do more good than harm. Health promotion messages to eat more oily fish (a good source of fatty acids) for example, are important but unfortunately as per other occasions, are unlikely to provide the same levels of such nutrients as artificial supplementation delivers. That and the fact that oily fish is probably not going to be to everyone's taste.

Insofar as the 'where next?' of this area of research, well, longer-term follow-up is perhaps an important goal to see whether positive changes to reading ability and/or potential amelioration of behavioural issues translates into more favourable academic and other outcomes as a function of fatty acid intake. Accepting that for example, ADHD and/or ADHD-type behaviours might place someone at varying degrees of disadvantage (see here for example), the onus is also on providing the best chances for a person and if that includes a daily fatty acid supplement to help in some way, I don't see too many people quibbling about it [3].

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[1] Johnson M. et al. Omega 3/6 fatty acids for reading in children: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 9-year-old mainstream schoolchildren in Sweden. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016 Aug 22.

[2] Richardson AJ. et al. Docosahexaenoic Acid for Reading, Cognition and Behavior in Children Aged 7–9 Years: A Randomized, Controlled Trial (The DOLAB Study). PLoS ONE. 2013; 7(9): e43909.

[3] Königs A. & Kiliaan AJ. Critical appraisal of omega-3 fatty acids in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder treatment. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2016 Jul 26;12:1869-82.

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Johnson M, Fransson G, Östlund S, Areskoug B, & Gillberg C (2016). Omega 3/6 fatty acids for reading in children: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 9-year-old mainstream schoolchildren in Sweden. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines PMID: 27545509