Influence of a Specific Aquatic Program on Social and Gross Motor Skills in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Three Case Reports

Abstract

Swimming pool activities revealed to be efficacious to train psychomotor skills and increase adaptive behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a specific multi-systemic aquatic therapy (CI-MAT) on gross motor and social skills in three adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Methods: three adolescents with ASD of which two boys (M1 with a chronological age of 10.3 years and a mental age of 4.7 years; M2 with a chronological age of 14.6 and a mental age inferior to 4 years) and one girl (chronological age of 14.0 and a mental age inferior to 4 years). The study was divided into three phases: baseline, 12-week CI-MAT program and Post-Test. Participants were administered a battery of tests incorporating anthropometric measurements, gross motor development test and a social skills questionnaire before and after a 12-week MAT-CI program. Results: Subjects improved locomotors and object control skills following the CI-MAT program in a different way. Concerning social behaviors, the higher proportion of gains was observed in the sensitivity of other’s presence and eye contact, for the contact domain, and in the comply turn for the relationship domain. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the CI-MAT program was effective for the development of gross-motor skills and social behaviors in subjects with ASD. Moreover there is an urge to carry out a whole psychological assessment targeting both motor and adaptive development suitable to provide educational and vocational plans of exercises for people with ASD.

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“…According to Tucker's observations (2016), children or/and adolescents with ASD who participated in aquatic actions had the possibility for significant learning, allowing the experience to encourage, to develop and start with a deep understanding of the situation from the 'opposite' point of view. Some activities which were used to measure social and emotional integration and interdependence by Battaglia (2019) showed that aquatic techniques have benefits for participants with ASD because it reflects the real-life as a model to their playing. In this research, the effect of aquatic activities agrees with one more study which had the same target.…”

“…Three studies collected data using an observation schedule (Battaglia et al, 2019;Primenta et al, 2016;Tucker, 2016) with a video recording of the sessions. Data were scored according to a scale which aimed to identify the number of components of each skill or behavior, the participants completed independently.…”

“…Ôucker (2016) evaluated in her study the use of behavioral skills teaching in-water safety skills to children with ASD and showed that the participants improved in targeted individual components of potentially life-saving and social skills. On the other hand, Battaglia et al (2019) found that swimming pool activities trained psychomotor skills and increased adaptive behaviors in children with ASD. Moreover, Primenta et al (2016) found in their study that children with ASD demonstrated positive results for the evolution of aquatic skills, and better participation in the proposed activities.…”

“…In most studies, aquatic activities occurred in one setting and the effects on dependent variables were assessed in the same setting (Battaglia et al, 2019;Pan, 2010;Pimenta et al, 2016;Tucker, 2016). The researcher has employed a large vocabulary of terms to refer to the same, similar, or related constructs like the one defined here as aquatic activities.…”

“…In only one of the rests of the studies, participants engaged in three different aquatic skills, essential for movement exploration in water and swimming, in a one-to-one training format (Yanardag, 2015). Finally, three studies used a structured intervention programme, such as SPARK programme, which consisted of 36 sessions (Najafabadi et al, 2018), a twenty-one weeks water exercise swimming program (WESP) (Pan, 2010) and a twelve weeks multisystemic aquatic programme (CI-MAT) as a form of therapy (Battaglia, 2019).…”