Papiernik, Serge <br/><br/>
The identification and early diagnosis of neuromotor signs in autism: The approach of Claudine Amiel-Tison and Evelyne Soyez-Papiernik 

 -  2023.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> As the articles in this thematic issue illustrate, neuromotor skills are multifaceted. In bringing them all together, Evelyne Soyez-Papiernik, who was familiar with neuromotor skills in their entirety, anticipated their role in autism spectrum disorders, and in neurodevelopmental disorders more broadly, long before their significance was given due attention in the scientific literature. She saw motor development as the first indicator of a dysfunction, the physiotherapist as a front-line actor, and devised the implementation of interdisciplinary therapies from the very first signs of neuromotor dysfunction. In this regard, her research predated the triptych, a set of recommendations set forth in the French Third Autism Plan, which advocated multidisciplinary care and monitoring from the first signs of autism risk, even if these signs did not lead to a diagnosis at a later stage. Soyez-Papiernik succeeded in highlighting two key points: that these first signs are most often related to motor skills, which she did in a pioneering fashion, and that interdisciplinary care must primarily involve physiotherapists, osteopaths, pediatric neurologists, psychologists, and speech therapists working together to reduce motor dysfunction before it spills over into the social, emotional, and cognitive spheres.