Let’s Exercise

It is a widely known fact that exercise is good for us. It stimulates our “feel good hormones”, helps with weight control and increases our energy level. For most of us, exercise is just that; a way to lose weight, to look better, or to reduce stress. We might take a walk from time to time, play with the kids a little bit, use the stairs instead of the elevator or maybe run a lap around the complex once every week.

Exercise for children on the other hand is vital to their development. In a book written by Byrne and Hills in 2007 they emphasise the fact that physical activity in early childhood plays an essential role in the physical, psychosocial and mental development of a child. They develop core motor skills for participation in important activities later in life. For older children, physical activity decreases their chances of developing early onset obesity, it improves executive and cognitive function, and it increases their attention span.

The benefits of physical exercise for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is exponentially more. Children with ASD may experience some or all of the following challenges: fine and/or gross motor skill deficits, poor attention span, difficulties crossing the midline as well as poor coordination. Fine motor skills are skills that concern the muscles in their hands and fingers. A functional way they develop in childhood is through picking up small objects with their thumb and index finger (pincer grip), learning how to hold a crayon or a pen with an age appropriate grip, holding a spoon to feed themselves, or cutting. Gross motor skills lean more towards whole body movements which include their core muscles. Gross motor skills are important for skills like balance, running, jumping, as well as hand-eye coordination skills like throwing and catching.

Children with ASD also tend to have sensory regulation deficits which leads to them self-stimulating (stimming) in inappropriate and sometimes self-harmful ways (e.g. head hitting, hand flapping, spinning objects, excessive or hard blinking and rocking). A study done by Kern, Koegel, Dyer, Blew, and Fenton showed that physical exercise decreased self-stimulatory behaviour and related off-task behaviours. This study was done in 1982 and many other studies have been done since. Some of these studies done between 2009 and 2011 (sourced below) have shown positive effects on social behaviour, communication skills, academic engagement and sensory skills in children with ASD.

At Applied Behaviour Solutions we believe that physical exercise is essential to our kids’ success. In our sessions we work on a lot of skills, depending on what the child needs and this can sometimes be quite taxing on them. We like to have frequent breaks and just play. The best form of exercise for them is play so we might go outside and play tag, jump on a trampoline, play hide and seek or maybe ‘the floor is lava’. These are games kids tend to really enjoy and it gives them the physical exercise like running or jumping that is, as mentioned above, extremely beneficial for them. We like to incorporate physical activity and motor skills development in our individualised programmes through fun and creative activities as well.

Here are some fun ways we incorporate motor skills development into our programmes:

Gross motor skills:

• A fun way to work on crossing the midline is through playing Simon Says. We give them actions that entails crossing the midline to imitate throughout the game.
• Building an obstacle course that includes a balance beam to work on balance.
• Kids yoga (this helps with building their core muscles, balance and crossing the midline).
• Jumping on a trampoline.
• Hopscotch (this improves balance and jumping)
• Riding a bike or a scooter

Fine motor skills:

• Playing with coin slots to work on their fine motor skills like their pincer grip.
• Colouring in pictures they have a particular interest in.
• Cutting out shapes and pictures.
• Building and playing with playdough or theraputty
• Playing with locks (locking and unlocking padlocks)
• Water play with sponges
• Painting

At Applied Behaviour Solutions we are dedicated to make all our sessions as fun, physical and creative as possible. Feel free to have a look at some of our other articles regarding ASD if you would like more information.