Hand preferences in sign-learning students with autistic disorder

The purpose of the study was fourfold: (a) to document the hand preferences of nonspeaking individuals with autism as they produced signs and nonsign actions; (b) to find out if sign-language proficiency in such individuals i s associated with directionality or consistency of signing hand preference; (c) to explore the link between hand preference for signing and standardis ed measures of cognitive and motor development; (d) to compare the hand pre ferences (sign and nonsign actions) of such individuals to sign-learning ch ildren with normal cognitive functioning. In this study, the hand preferenc es of 14 nonspeaking students with autistic disorder were determined from v ideotape records of their sign production and nonsign actions. In their sig n production, four students strongly favoured their right hands, four had a distinct left-hand preference, and six did not significantly favour either hand. There was little evidence linking sign-language proficiency, cogniti ve maturity, or motor development to strongly lateralised signing or handed ness in general in these students. Compared with the hand preferences of th e children in the two comparison groups, the autistic students were markedl y less lateralised with respect to signing, but not nonsign actions.