Comparison of reaction time and balance in autism and normal children

The purpose of this study was to compare the reaction time and balance in autism and normal children. The research method was casual-comparative research. 15 children with autism were recruited voluntarily and 15 normal children (consistent with their peers in age, Body Mass Index, effective developmental disorders, chronological age, sensory profile measurement, lack of orthopedic and cardiovascular problems, no convulsion in the last two years and no drug use which affects the motor control) were chosen randomly. The reaction time apparatus and Biodex were respectively used for measuring Reaction time and balance. Ks test was used to specify the data normality and independent- t test was used to compare the mean in two groups.The results suggested that the balance performance of children with autism were disturbed in all three balance tests including total, anterior-posterior and lateral tests in high difficulty level of balance tasks (respectively, p=0.001, p=0.03, p=0.001) while no significant difference was found in low difficulty level of balance tasks.
conclusively, it was found that visual simple and choice reaction time were significantly weaker in children with autism that must be taken into consideration.