The effect of 8 weeks of corrective play therapy on postural alignment, sensory profile, and attention deficit in children with upper cross syndrome on the autism spectrum

Background and Aim: upper cross syndrome is a common defect among children with autism syndrome. The aim of the present study is to the effect of 8 weeks of corrective play therapy on the postural alignment, sensory profile, and attention deficit of children with upper cross syndrome on the autism spectrum. Materials and Methods: To carry out this research, 20 autistic boys (7-12 years old) with upper cross syndrome were purposefully selected and randomly divided into two groups of exercises (10 n) and control (10 n). Before the intervention, consent was obtained from the parents of the children. The photography method, flexible ruler, Dunn questionnaire and Connors questionnaire were used to evaluate forward head, forward shoulder, kyphosis, sensory profile, and attention deficit in autistic children with upper cross syndrome, respectively. The training group performed corrective games for 8 weeks, the control group also did their daily activities in the rehabilitation center, the exercises were performed under the supervision of a corrective movement specialist. After the completion of the course, all the subjects were re-evaluated in all research variables as in the pre-test. Covariance and paired t-test were used to examine the difference between groups and within groups, respectively, using SPSS version 26 software, the significance level in the present study is less than 0.05. Results: The results of the research showed that 8 weeks of corrective games exercises had an effect on the amount of forward head, forward shoulder, kyphosis, sensory profile, and attention deficit in autistic children with upper cross syndrome (P < 0.05). However, no significant difference was found in the control group. In the between-group comparison, there was an improvement with a large effect size of the corrective game training group (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of the research, it can be concluded that the exercises of the present study affected all the factors of the research, led to the improvement of postural alignment, and multiple senses and focused the focus of attention of autistic children with upper cross syndrome. Respected trainers and occupational therapists are suggested to use these exercises.