Choosing an appropriate physical exercise to reduce stereotypic behavior in Children with autism spectrum disorders: a non-randomized crossover study

Considerable evidence has shown that physical exercise could be an effective treatment in reducing stereotypical autism spectrum disorder (ASD) behaviors in children. The present study seeks to examine the underlying mechanism by considering the theoretical operant nature of stereotypy. Children with ASD (n = 30) who exhibited hand-flapping and body-rocking stereotypies were asked to participate in both control (story-time) and experimental (ball-tapping-exercise intervention) conditions. The experimental condition comprised 15 min of ball tapping during which the children were asked to tap a plastic ball as many times as they could. Results indicated that hand-flapping stereotypy was significantly reduced but body-rocking stereotypy following the ball-tapping-exercise intervention was not. These results not only confirm the positive impact of exercise intervention on stereotypic behavior as shown in many previous studies, but further suggest that physical exercise should be matched with the biomechanics of stereotypy to produce a desirable behavioral benefit.

Autism spectrum disorder, Children, Physical exercise, Repetitive behavior, Stereotypy

10.1007/s10803-017-3419-3

0162-3257

1666-1672

Tse, C. Y.Andy

e0d6b2be-a736-43ac-b03e-d2d58a56e114

Pang, C. L.

17633134-1537-4e48-af00-442c014953f7

Lee, Paul H.

02620eab-ae7f-4a1c-bad1-8a50e7e48951

1 May 2018

Tse, C. Y.Andy

e0d6b2be-a736-43ac-b03e-d2d58a56e114

Pang, C. L.

17633134-1537-4e48-af00-442c014953f7

Lee, Paul H.

02620eab-ae7f-4a1c-bad1-8a50e7e48951

Tse, C. Y.Andy, Pang, C. L. and Lee, Paul H. (2018) Choosing an appropriate physical exercise to reduce stereotypic behavior in Children with autism spectrum disorders: a non-randomized crossover study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48 (5), 1666-1672. (doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3419-3).

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Published date: 1 May 2018

Additional Information: Funding Information: Acknowledgments This research was supported by Dean’s Research Fund of the Education University of Hong Kong. The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the teachers, parents and children who are involved in this study, and the research assistant and student helpers who helped with data collection and other contributions. Publisher Copyright: © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder, Children, Physical exercise, Repetitive behavior, Stereotypy