Effectiveness of Ball Exercises on Reduction of Stereotypic Behavior of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder With High Performance

Objectives: The incidence of stereotyped behaviors is one of the major symptoms of diagnosis of individuals with autism spectrum disorder that causes disruption in daily life. This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of ball exercises on the reduction of stereotypical behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder. Methods: In this study, 16 children (boys) with autism spectrum disorder were randomly selected by purposive sampling and were assigned to two groups (experimental and control groups) with eight subjects each in both the. The ball exercise intervention program was implemented for 24 sessions (8 weeks, 3 sessions per week, each session lasting for 35 min) for the experimental group. The control group participated in the occupational therapy activities similar to that of the experimental group for three times a week. The stereotyped behaviors were evaluated using a rating scale Gilliam (2nd edition) and the end data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Results: Analysis of variance showed a significant difference in post-test scores of both the experimental and control groups (P=0.01), thus showing the effectiveness of the intervention.  Discussion: The results suggested that the Jim exercise ball could change the stereotypical behavior of children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder.