Creative yoga intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by primary impairments in the social communication skills, and presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors, as well as secondary impairments in the motor skills of children. The rising prevalence of ASD (1 in every 68 children) emphasizes the need for effective interventions to promote better outcomes in this population. The primary goal of the current study was to examine the effects of a movement-based, creative yoga intervention on the motor, social communication, and behavioral skills of children with ASD. Additionally, we compared the efficacy of yoga to two other movement interventions delivered within a musical and robotic context in children with ASD. Twelve children with ASD between 5- and 12 years of age received 8-weeks of yoga intervention with 2 sessions delivered each week and additional home sessions delivered by the parents of the children. The activities practiced within the yoga sessions included poses, breathing exercises, eye gaze training, social games, and relaxation. We assessed the generalized changes in the motor, imitation, and joint attention of children using standardized tests administered before and after the intervention, and training-specific changes in the imitation, communication, affect, and maladaptive behaviors of children during the early, mid, and late training session. Our results indicated that children improved the gross motor performance, imitation accuracy, and response to joint attention bids on standardized tests following the yoga intervention. In addition, the children showed training-specific improvements in the imitation of yoga poses and communication skills during the late training sessions compared to the mid and early sessions. In terms of differences between the three movement-based intervention, we observed similar training-related changes in the motor, communication, and affective states of children following the music, robot, or yoga intervention such that children improved the motor and communications skills, with no changes in the affective states following the intervention. We also observed group-related differences, such that the yoga group was associated with greater responsive social verbalization and interested affect, the music group had greater positive and negative affect, and lastly, the robot group had greater self-verbalization and negative affect compared to the other two groups. Overall, the current evidence suggests that movement-based interventions delivered within engaging and creative contexts could be promising tools for alleviating the primary social communication, as well as the secondary motor impairments of children with ASD.