Narasingharao Kumar, Pradhan Balaram, Navaneetham Janardhana
Research Scholar, Department of Yoga and Humanities, S-VYASA University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Assistant Registrar, Department of Academics, S-Vyasa University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
J Clin Diagn Res. 2017 Mar;11(3):VC01-VC06. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2017/25894.9502. Epub 2017 Mar 1.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro developmental disorder which appears at early childhood age between 18 and 36 months. Apart from behaviour problems ASD children also suffer from sleep and Gastrointestinal (GI) problems. Major behaviour problems of ASD children are lack of social communication and interaction, less attention span, repetitive and restrictive behaviour, lack of eye to eye contact, aggressive and self-injurious behaviours, sensory integration problems, motor problems, deficiency in academic activities, anxiety and depression etc. Our hypothesis is that structured yoga intervention will brings significant changes in the problems of ASD children.
The aim of this study was to find out efficacy of structured yoga intervention for sleep problems, gastrointestinal problems and behaviour problems of ASD children.
It was an exploratory study with pre-test and post-test control design. Three sets of questionnaires having 61 questions developed by researchers were used to collect data pre and post yoga intervention. Questionnaires were based on three problematic areas of ASD children as mentioned above and were administered to parents by teachers under the supervision of researcher and clinical psychologists. Experimental group was given yoga intervention for a period of 90 days and control group continued with school curriculum.
Both children and parents participated in this intervention. Significant changes were seen post yoga intervention in three areas of problems as mentioned above. Statistical analysis also showed significance value of 0.001 in the result.
Structured yoga intervention can be conducted for a large group of ASD children with parent's involvement. Yoga can be used as alternative therapy to reduce the severity of symptoms of ASD children.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种神经发育障碍，出现在18至36个月的幼儿期。除了行为问题外，ASD儿童还存在睡眠和胃肠道（GI）问题。ASD儿童的主要行为问题包括缺乏社交沟通与互动、注意力持续时间短、重复和受限行为、缺乏眼神交流、攻击性行为和自伤行为、感觉统合问题、运动问题、学业活动不足、焦虑和抑郁等。我们的假设是，结构化瑜伽干预将给ASD儿童的问题带来显著变化。
本研究的目的是探究结构化瑜伽干预对ASD儿童睡眠问题、胃肠道问题和行为问题的疗效。
这是一项采用前测和后测对照设计的探索性研究。研究人员编制的三套共61个问题的问卷用于在瑜伽干预前后收集数据。问卷基于上述ASD儿童的三个问题领域，由教师在研究人员和临床心理学家的监督下向家长发放。实验组接受为期90天的瑜伽干预，对照组继续学校课程。
儿童和家长都参与了此次干预。在上述三个问题领域，瑜伽干预后出现了显著变化。统计分析结果也显示显著性值为0.001。
在家长参与的情况下，可以对大量ASD儿童进行结构化瑜伽干预。瑜伽可作为替代疗法来减轻ASD儿童的症状严重程度。
