Effects Of Physical Exercise On Fundamental Movement Skills And Executive Functions In Children With ASD

PURPOSE: This study examined the effectiveness of a 12-week (two times a week for 70-min periods) physical exercise intervention on the fundamental movement skills and executive functions of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). METHODS: Twenty boys with ASD, aged 6-12 years, participated in the study. All of the participants with ASD were matched based on age (within 6 months) and coexisting ASD symptoms, and were randomly assigned into either a physical exercise intervention (n = 10) or an ASD non-training control group (n = 10). All participants completed the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2), the Stroop Color and Word Test, and the Go/No-go Test (a subtest from the Test for Attentional Performance) before and after the intervention. To assess the effects of the physical exercise intervention, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a 2 (time: pretest versus posttest) x 2 (group: ASD training versus ASD non-training) mixed-model factorial design was conducted. The Tukey’s post hoc test was performed if significant group differences emerged. The test of simple main effect was followed up with a significant interaction effect. The level of significance was set at p < .05. The effect size was computed and reported as a η2 value for the ANOVA evaluations. RESULTS: The main findings revealed that (a) the ASD training group demonstrated significantly better performance on the locomotor (43.30 vs. 39.60; F(1, 18) = 17.48, p = .001, η2 = 0.49) and object-control skills (43.00 vs. 38.40; F(1, 18) = 14.38, p = .001, η2 = 0.44) than the ASD non-training group after the 12 weeks of physical exercise intervention, (b) the ASD training group displayed improvement in the Stroop Color-Word score as compared with the ASD non-training group after training (31.50 vs. 23.60; F(1, 18) = 8.50, p = .009, η2 = 0.32), and (c) the ASD training group had a significantly higher score in the Stroop Color-Word score after the intervention compared with baseline (31.50 vs. 26.90; F(1, 9) = 31.53, p = .000, η2 = 0.20), whereas the ASD non-training group did not. CONCLUSION: The results suggest the potential of physical exercise to positively affect executive functions of children with ASD. Taiwan MOST grant 103-2410-H-017-026-MY3 & MOST 106-2410-H-017-022-MY3