The Effect of Basic Gymnastics Exercises on Movement Skills of children with autism disorder

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of basic gymnastics movements on motor skills of children with autism disorders. Participants were 45 autistic children aged 4 to 12 years old from the Autism Center of Isfahan. Thirty seven of them had the criteria to participate in the study which 24 of them were randomly selected, Participants were matched based on movement skills pretest divided in two groups. Movement Assessment Battery for children was used to assess the children's motor skills. First, a pretest was conducted for both groups, then; the experimental group exercised basic gymnastic movements 2 days per week for 24 weeks in 45-minute sessions. Then, a post-test was conducted for both groups. Levine's test for homogeneity of variance and K-S test for normality of the data were used. For data analysis, (ANCOVA) at p 0.05 were used. The results demonstrated that basic gymnastic movements significant improve total motor skills, ball skills and static and dynamic balance. But no significant diference was shown in manual dexterity. The results can be claimed that basic gymnastic movements improve motor skills in children with autism disorder.