The Effectiveness of Aquatic Exercises on the Gross Motor Skills in Autistic Children

Background and Objectives: Most of the children suffering autism have problems in gross motor skills in daily activities. The present research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of aquatic exercises on gross motor skills in a selected group of autistic children, aging 6 to 13 years. Material and Methods: The research was conducted in a quasi-experimental framework with pre- and post-test. Doing so, 14 children with autism were selected among children in Autism Charity Foundation Tehran, Iran) 2014). The subjects were divided into two experimental (8 applicants) and control (6 people) groups after being assessed based on their growth of motor skills through Broninx-Ozeretski test of gross motor skills. Afterwards, experimental group experienced 12 aquatic exercises while control group received no treatment. After that, both groups took the post-test. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that the mean score of the experimental and control gropus are not significantly different in pre- and post-test. The results indicated that selected treatments had no significant influence on gross motor skills of autistic children with α=0.05. Conclusion: According to the results, it can be concluded that aquatic exercises had no significant influence on gross motor skills, speed, coordination and strength in autistic children.