INTRODUCTION Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by early functional anomalies including restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior; deficits of social behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013); and sensorimotor challenges (Baranek, 1999; Cascio et al., 2016; Fournier et al., 2010; Unruh et al., 2021), with onset prior to the 3rd year of life (Lord et al., 2000). The incidence is 4.5 times higher among boys than girls (Christensen et al., 2016).
