Development of Exercise Program Using Sensory Integration Theory with Thai Wisdom to Improve Health–Related Physical Fitness and Social Skills of Autistic Children

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to develop an exercise program using sensory integration theory with Thai wisdom to improve health-related physical fitness and social skills of autistic children, and 2) to evaluate the effectiveness of an exercise program using sensory integration theory with Thai wisdom to improve health-related physical fitness and social skills of autistic children. The subjects of this study were 8 children of 12–18 years old who were diagnosed with autism at a moderate level. Those autistic children were purposively selected. The subjects were trained in 45 minute sessions, 3 times a week for 8 weeks. Data were collected before the experiment, immediately after the experiment and again after 2 weeks, and were analyzed by descriptive statistic, one-way ANOVA with repeated measures and t-test. The research results findings were as follows:

1) The develop program consisted of 3 intervention activities: Thai traditional play using a loincloth, individual exercise, dual exercise, and group exercise. There were 26 exercise posts and 5 steps in the exercise. The program had an aggregate IOC of 0.94.

2) The health-related physical fitness of autistic children after the experiment and in the following 2 weeks was higher than before the experiment at a 0.5 level of significance.

3) Skills in social interaction, social communication and working with others compared to after the experiment was higher than before the experiment at a 0.5 level of significance.