The Effects of a Course of Motor Activities Along with Music on the Balance, Running Speed and Agility in Children with Autism

Autism is one of the most common disorders affecting children. People with Autism disorder have problems with many motor skills, such as balance and walking speed. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of a period of motor activities along with music on balance performance and running speed in the children between 6 to 9 years old suffering from autism disorder.
This study was a semi-experimental research. Among children with autism disorders in care centers of autistic children in 2017 in Isfahan, 16 children were selected using screening tests. They were randomly divided into two groups (interventional and control) and in each group 8 patients using the Bruninx Oseretsky test as a pre-test, after assessing balance performance and running speed and agility. Then, the interventional group performed motor activities along with music for 8 weeks and 3 sessions per week. Finally, all subjects were subjected to post-test using balance performance and running speed. In order to investigate the natural distribution of data, Shapiro Wilco test was used and the covariance analysis by SPSS 21 was used for the research hypothesis.
The findings of this study showed that the groups were homogeneous in terms of age, IQ and severity of autism. The findings of this study also showed that motor activities along with music in the interventional group was effective on the balance performance, running speed and agility of children suffering from autism disorder and they were significantly improved compared with the control group (P=0.001).
According to the results, motor activity can be considered with music to improve balance performance, speed and agility in children with Autism disorder. Hence, the use of motor activity along with music is suggested as a suitable interventional method for children with Autism disorder.