scholarly journals A Family-based Telerehabilitation Program for Improving Gross Motor Skills in Children With High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Author(s):  
Louisa Aqdassi ◽  
Saeid Sadeghi ◽  
Hamid Reza Pouretemad ◽  
Jalil Fathabadi

Introduction: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience problems in motor skills which can affect other abilities such as academic and daily life skills.  In this regard,  the cost of interventions and the long distance from the rehabilitation  centers  put pressure  on the family of children with ASD. Previous studies have shown the potential for using telerehabilitation as a more affordable way to provide interventions for children with ASD. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the non-attendant family-centered Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK) motor program intervention to develop gross motor skills in children with a high-function ASD. Materials and Methods: The research is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design. The participants were 9 families  of  children  with  high-functioning ASD  referring to the rehabilitation centers in Tehran, Isfahan, Quds, and Kermanshah provinces, Iran. Telerehabilitation of SPARK motor program involves exercising and playing performed in 24 sessions of 45 minutes each (3 sessions per week) for 8 weeks applied for parents. The test of gross motor development-2 (TGMD-2) was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed by paired t-test. Results: The results showed that family-based telerehabilitation of the SPARK program significantly improved gross motor skills in children with high-functioning ASD (P<0.05). Conclusion: It seems that the telerehabilitation of SPARK can be helpful for families who do not have access to rehabilitation centers.

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. e0303133
Author(s):  
Kostiantyn Dubovyk

Background. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulties in the development of simulating, gross and fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and language skills. Tics and repetitive movements often associated with ASD, intellectual deficiency. Aim. To identify a relationship between tic disorders and specific developmental disorders: motor skills, speech, cognitive functions in children with ASD. Methods. There were randomized 79 children aged 4-6 years with ASD, 38 children among them with comorbid tics disorders (TD). For the diagnosis of ASD were used diagnostic criteria of ICD-10, Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). The development of motor skills, speech, and cognitive function was assessed using Psycho-educational Profile (PEP-R). For the diagnosis of comorbid mental disorders ware conducted using The Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA). As motor disorders considered tics, abnormal movements associated with ADHD, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Tics were assessed by Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS). Results. In children with ASD and comorbid TD was noted retardation of formation of gross motor skills in comparison with the control group by PEP-R. It was also noted delay in the formation of skills in receptive speech and gross motor skills in accordance with the results of evaluation by using Vineland-II.


Author(s):  
Reiko Ohara ◽  
Yuji Kanejima ◽  
Masahiro Kitamura ◽  
Kazuhiro P. Izawa

Social communication and motor skill deficits are prevalent characteristics of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This systematic research review investigates whether and how broad social skills and motor skills may be related among individuals with ASD. We performed a PubMed search of articles written in English, using these study inclusion criteria: (a) an association between social and motor and skills among individuals previously diagnosed with autism; (b) one or more social skills measures were used; and (c) one or more measures of gross or fine motor skills were used. We classified data into two categories, and we based the association of these variables on correlation coefficients, p-values, coefficients of determination, and authors’ description of “may be associated” and “may not be associated.” Despite heterogeneity among these relevant studies, a highly likely association between social and motor skills emerged. Of a total of 16 studies reviewed, 12 reported associations between these skill sets. Three studies reported that fine motor skills had a stronger relationship with social skills than did gross motor skills. Among the gross motor skills associated with social skills, object control skills seemed most closely linked to social skills. Among fine motor skills, manual dexterity seemed to most closely related to social skills.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Battaglia ◽  
Gianna Agrò ◽  
Pietro Cataldo ◽  
Antonio Palma ◽  
Marianna Alesi

Swimming pool activities revealed to be efficacious to train psychomotor skills and increase adaptive behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a specific multi-systemic aquatic therapy (CI-MAT) on gross motor and social skills in three adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Methods: three adolescents with ASD of which two boys (M1 with a chronological age of 10.3 years and a mental age of 4.7 years; M2 with a chronological age of 14.6 and a mental age inferior to 4 years) and one girl (chronological age of 14.0 and a mental age inferior to 4 years). The study was divided into three phases: baseline, 12-week CI-MAT program and Post-Test. Participants were administered a battery of tests incorporating anthropometric measurements, gross motor development test and a social skills questionnaire before and after a 12-week MAT-CI program. Results: Subjects improved locomotors and object control skills following the CI-MAT program in a different way. Concerning social behaviors, the higher proportion of gains was observed in the sensitivity of other’s presence and eye contact, for the contact domain, and in the comply turn for the relationship domain. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the CI-MAT program was effective for the development of gross-motor skills and social behaviors in subjects with ASD. Moreover there is an urge to carry out a whole psychological assessment targeting both motor and adaptive development suitable to provide educational and vocational plans of exercises for people with ASD.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbas Bakhshipour ◽  
Majid Mahmood Aliloo ◽  
Hassan Shahrokhi ◽  
Toraj Hashemi ◽  
Shahrokh Amiri ◽  
...  

Autism is a pervasive neurodevelopment disorder, primarily encompassing difficulties in the social, language, and communicative domains. One of the most common social cognitive theories of autism is based on theory of mind (ToM), the “mentalizing” ability needed to infer that others have their own beliefs and desires in order to understand their behavior. In the current study, this hypothesis was tested using Wellman and Liu's scaled ToM tasks. These were employed in the assessment of ToM development of verbal, school-aged high-functioning boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results indicated that children with ASD performed significantly worse than normal children on ToM tasks (Z=4.7; P<0 .001). However, it was shown that some of the ASD children were able to pass desire and false-belief tasks whereas none of them could succeed in knowledge and real-apparent emotion tasks.


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