Action -Specific Perception in Different Focus of Attention Conditions in Autistic Children

Lifestyle changes and the increasing trend of children's developmental disorders, especially in the field of social interactions have made it necessary to conduct research in this field of study. So the present study aimed to investigate the action-specific perception in the different focus of attention conditions in autistic children.

In a quasi-experimental study, 45 people with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder were identified and randomly divided into three Internal Attention, External Attention, and Control groups (15 people in each group). The participant's task was to throw darts and estimate the target size. After the pre-test, the groups performed the dart-throwing task in 5 blocks of 10 trials. The focus of attention instructions - specific to the experimental groups- were given before each trial, and subjects were asked to estimate the target size before performing the tasks in each block. For this, participants used a circle shape in Microsoft PowerPoint to draw a circle the same size as the darts' target. The next day, retention and transfer tests were performed.

The results showed that the Internal Attention group was better than the External Attention and Control groups both in dart-throwing performance in acquisition, retention, and transfer stages and in action-specific perception (P≤0.05).

In general, the findings showed that in children with autism spectrum disorder, internal attention leads to better performance and learning than external attention. Therefore coaches and physical education teachers who work with these children should emphasize on benefits of internal focus of attention when designing training sessions.