Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is frequently accompanied by motor difficulties, including atypical gait, that emerge early and often persist into adulthood. Although gait abnormalities are not part of the core diagnostic criteria, gait offers a detailed, quantifiable window into the ASD motor phenotype that complements standard clinical motor scales. This narrative review summarizes gait characteristics in ASD across spatiotemporal, kinematic, kinetic, variability, symmetry, and dynamic-balance domains, and synthesizes current and emerging assessment approaches, from walkways and three-dimensional motion capture to wearable sensors, markerless video, and mobile brain-body imaging. We propose that further progress depends less on adopting ever more sophisticated instrumentation and more on standardized, ASD-friendly, longitudinal assessment that translates statistical group differences into individually meaningful, clinically interpretable measures.

Jinfeng Li, Xiaoyu Chen. Advances in Gait Assessment in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Frontiers in Sport Research (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 4: 49-54. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSR.2026.080408.

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