Sensory Processing, Movement, and Brainz

In the pop-sci news, a study from Kennedy Kreiger on vestibular vs. visual learning of new movements. The study found that autistic children relied more on their vestibular sense than on visual information when learning new movements.

I'll not argue that some of us on the spectrum have motor differences (another Kennedy Kreiger study, as well as other studies, referenced from that link). I'll also not argue that sensory processing differences play a large role for some of us in how we learn about and interact with the world (for example, the recent sensory integration and speech article). I do wonder some things though about this quote from one of the study's investigators (bearing in mind of course I have no clue how out of context this quote has been taken by prior authors, and am, in this domain, a lay person myself).

"These findings not only demonstrate why children with autism have difficulty learning motor skills, but also provide real insight into why these children have difficulty learning to interact with the world around them," said Dr. Reza Shadmehr, senior study author and Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. "If the way their brain is wired is not allowing them to rely as much as typically developing children on external visual cues to guide behavior, they may have difficulty learning how to interact with other people and interpret the nature of other people's actions."

If it's as simple as just a lack of visual cues to guide behavior, than why don't all blind people also receive an ASD diagnosis?

Do some of us have trouble learning motor skills because we aren't relying much on visual cues, or is it more that we are relying less on visual cues because of sensory integration issues and the motor skills issues are an entirely separate deal? Or even that we are relying less on visuals because of the concentration that motor planning involves; i.e. needing to "turn off" vision in order to concentrate on the intense task of motor planning? There seem to be many, many possible explanations for what is observed to me.

What do you think? Is the study and quote convincing or just an oversimplification of the true complexity of our mind, brain, and body relationships?