Effects of gymnastics exercises on motor skills body composition and physical performance of autistic children

Abstract

The objective of the study was to find out the effects of gymnastics exercises programme on motor skills, body composition and physical performance of autistic children. A sample of twenty four (N= 24) boys age ranged between 10 to 14 years from Astha Rehabilitation Centre, Mohali, (Panjab) were purposively selected to act as participants for this experimental investigation. The chosen subjects were divided into four groups with six children in each group namely Group-A, B, C and Group D (Control Group). The daily, weekly and monthly Gymnastics exercise training schedule was prepared with the help of experts for all three experimental groups. Group-A was given gymnastics exercises training programme for six days in a week, Group-B was given this treatment (gymnastics exercises training) thrice a week and Group-C was exposed to the gymnastics exercises training programme only once in a week for sixteen weeks. Group-D as a control group did not receive any treatment except their daily routine programme of the institute. To scrutinize the significance of differences between pre and post test means, t test was applied. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to examine the significance of mean difference among various treatment groups after sixteen week interventions of varied gymnastics exercises. Where obtained F values were found to be significant, the Scheffe s Post hoc test was followed to notice the degree and direction of differences in adjusted means. The level of significance was set at 0.05. After the completion of structured gymnastics exercises training programme, significant improvement was observed in the balance ability, aerobic functioning, musculoskeletal functioning and decrease of autism level of autistic children. It has been established from the present study that gymnastics training can bring improvement in the health-related physical fitness of autistic children. Therefore, the gymnastics training can be included in the therapeutic programme for autistic children.