The Effectiveness of Sensory-Motor Integration Activities on Balance and Executive Functions (Attention and Working Memory) of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Sensory-Motor Integration Activities (SMIA) on balance and executive functions such as attention and working memory of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2022.

This research was a randomized single-blinded clinical trial with pre-test and post-test design. To this end, 30 boys with ASD in Tehran's growth center were selected for the research sample with the purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received SMIA for 24 sessions for two months (three sessions of 60 minutes each week); but the control group remained on the waiting list during this time. The data collection instruments included: Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF). Data analysis was done using SPSS-21 software.

The finding of an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicate that compared to the control group, the experimental group had a significantly meaningful increase balance and a significant decrease the executive functions of attention and working memory of autistic boys (P<0.001). The effective rate of SMIA treatment was 0.89 for balance, 0.79 for attention, and 0.63 for working memory; which showed a strong treatment effect, high statistical accuracy, and sufficient sample size.

It can be concluded that SMIA improves balance and executive functions of boys with ASD. Therefore, these low-cost movement activities and exercises can be used to improve the physical balance and cognitive functions of autism patients so that they have better physical-mental conditions society.