The Effect of a Selected Sensory Integrity Training Program on Motor Skills and Body Composition of Children with Autism

Sensory and motor skills in autistic children are at a low level. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a selected sensory integrity training program on motor skills and body composition of children with autism in the city of Tabriz.

 This is an educational study. In this study, from among the autistic boys in the city of Tabriz in 2018, 40 people were randomly selected after the definite diagnosis of psychiatric disorders by a psychiatrist and based on diagnostic criteria and were then assigned to one of the two experimental and control groups. The research instruments included the Brininx-Oresetsky Expedition Test, the Physical Fitness Machine, and the training protocol for selected sensory integrity. The experimental group received 12 sessions of 90 minutes for sensory integrity training for 3 months, but the control group did not receive any training. The collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance analysis.

The results of the analysis of the collected data showed a significant difference in the post-test scores between the experimental and control groups in their coarse and delicate motor skills (p<0.001). Therefore, it can be claimed that the sensory integrity program improves the level of coarse and delicate motor skills and also improves the body composition in children with autism (p<0.001)

Based on the results obtained in the present study, a sensory integrity training program can be used to improve the performance of individuals with autism. Therefore, parents of autistic children can use these methods to improve mental health in their children.