Chapter 4: The Effects of Exercise on ASD

Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD, is a prevalent neurological disorder in children characterized by restrictive, repetitive patterns of behavior that place an added burden on everyday functions.[3] ASD effects many people world wide and these folks who are on the spectrum are able to live relatively normal lives. One of the biggest mentions is that people on the spectrum tend to struggle in social situations and are not always able to control these emotions. Students with ASD sometimes have undesirable behavior and also can show unexpected behaviors.

The goal of this chapter will be to give the reader a basic understanding of ASD as well as a look at how exercise can benefit students who are on the spectrum.

A brief video describing ASD is here if you are not aware of what ASD is: This is a great video that has some wonderful points and also has the best practices for ASD.

Fun Fact: 43% of all people with ASD are diagnosed by age 3.

I do not own this video, it is work of the YouTube Channel Life Noggin!

How does this connect to sports? That is such a good question! Sports are a great way for social health (Chapter 6 goes over this). Now we have talked about the effects ASD has on student behaviors and now I will explain how exercise can help mitigate some of these unwanted behaviors.

A study written by The American College of Sports Medicine suggests that, "Aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce SSB (self-stimulatory behaviors) in children with ASD. Exercise is a desirable treatment to reduce SSB for a multitude of reasons. Not only is it inexpensive and easy to administer, but the added health benefits of exercise may help improve quality of living in children with autism. "[3]

The SSB are behaviors that are similar to unexpected behaviors and Mary, Masters of Education in Special education suggests that this would be helpful to ensure students are able to be given an opportunity to deal with the stimulation in sports, this exposure would help them condition new wanted behaviors to replace their SSB.

Thank you for continuing to read! I am so excited to be able to co-author this E-book, as I have written I have gained such an appreciation for this topic. I was already super passionate about this but the work Mary and I have done to research this topic extensively have made me appreciate the field even more!

Reference:

[3] Schmitz Olin, S., Mcfadden, B., Golem, D., Pellegrino, J., Walker, A., Sanders, D., & Arent, S. (2017). The Effects of Exercise Dose on Stereotypical Behavior in Children with Autism. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 49(5), 983-990