Investigating the Matching Relationship between Physical Exercise and Stereotypic Behavior in Children with Autism

PURPOSEPhysical exercise has been shown to be effective in reducing stereotypic behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One possible mechanism concerns the matching hypothesis between exercise and behavior. The present study sought to examine this matching exercise-behavior relati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medicine and science in sports and exercise 2021-04, Vol.53 (4), p.770-775
Main Authors: TSE, ANDY C. Y., LIU, VENUS H. L., LEE, PAUL H.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:PURPOSEPhysical exercise has been shown to be effective in reducing stereotypic behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One possible mechanism concerns the matching hypothesis between exercise and behavior. The present study sought to examine this matching exercise-behavior relationship. METHODSParticipants (N = 21, 17 males and 4 females, Mage = 11.07 ± 1.44 yr, Mheight = 1.46 ± 0.99 m, and Mweight = 40.60 ± 8.25 kg), with observable forms of hand-flapping and body-rocking stereotypic behaviors, underwent three separate days of conditions, one for the control condition, one for the 10-min ball-tapping exercise condition, and one for the 10-min jogging condition, in randomized order. The frequency of each type of stereotypic behavior was video-recorded from 15 min before to 60 min after the exercise. RESULTSResults revealed that only hand-flapping stereotypic behaviors were significantly reduced in the ball-tapping exercise condition (p
ISSN:0195-9131
1530-0315
DOI:10.1249/MSS.0000000000002525