Scoping Review: Physical Activity and Social Functioning in Young People With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects ~1 in 59 people in North America and diagnoses continue to rise (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018 ). Unfortunately, the exact cause of ASD is unknown and therapy remains the primary means of intervention. People with ASD experience social and behavioral deficits associated with the disorder, which affect all aspects of life such as academics, relationships, and physical activity. Research has shown a relationship between physical activity and social skills in typically developing individuals; however, this relationship is less understood in people with ASD. The purpose of this scoping review was to uncover what is known about ASD, physical activity, and social functioning. The authors searched four databases and included 40 primary research articles in the review, most of which demonstrated a relationship between physical activity and social functioning for people with ASD. The relationship appears bidirectional: social functioning influences physical activity (to a lesser extent) and physical activity influences social functioning (to a greater extent). Regrettably, there were many limitations in these articles, such as small sample sizes and the under-representation of females and adults. Therefore, the review highlights several directions for future research.

Sweat, Sit, Sleep: A Compositional Analysis of 24‐hr Movement Behaviors and Body Mass Index among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Research should continue to apply 24‐hr movement behavior frameworks to children with ASD to identify the optimal composition of daily movement behaviors. In addition to more large scale studies of movement behaviors and health, the limitations of examining independent associations between movement behaviors and other relevant outcomes [e.g., sleep and behavior: Cohen, Conduit, Lockley, Rajaratnam, & Cornish, 2014; PA and social functioning: Reinders, Branco, Wright, Fletcher, & Bryden, 2019], should be also reexamined using compositional analysis.…”

Guía para la promoción de actividad física en personas con trastorno del espectro del autismo

“…Los jóvenes con diversidad funcional pueden consultar al profesional de la salud, u otros profesionales del área de la AF y del deporte adaptado, el tipo y cantidad de AF recomendada para ellos. Por lo tanto, la práctica regular de AF y la reducción del tiempo sedentario podría producir efectos positivos en la salud física, conductual y social de las personas con TEA (Huang et al, 2020;Jones et al, 2017), mejorando su calidad de vida (Cuesta et al, 2017;Reinders et al, 2019). Por ello, algunos autores han señalado la necesidad de promover la práctica regular de AF en estas personas (Liang et al, 2020) Tanto el tiempo que pasamos en movimiento como el que permanecemos sin movernos inciden en nuestra salud (Chaput, Carson, Gray y Tremblay, 2014).…”

Current consensus on clinical features, pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of autism spectrum disorder in children: A brief review

“…Key points in training a child with Autism are to use visuals, avoid long strings of verbal instruction, to encourage development of child's special talents, to use child's fixations to motivate school work, to use concrete, visual methods to teach number concepts, to protect child from sounds that hurt his/her ears, to place child near a window and avoid using fluorescent lights, to interact with the child while he/she is swinging or rolled in a mat, to teach with tactile learning materials (e.g., sandpaper alphabet), to use printed words and pictures on a flash card [31].…”