Department of Health and Physical Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Rm D4-2/F-03, Block D4, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po N.T., Hong Kong, China.
Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Rm 701, Robert Black Hall, EdUHK, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po N.T., Hong Kong, China.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 May;48(5):1666-1672. doi: 10.1007/s10803-017-3419-3.
Considerable evidence has shown that physical exercise could be an effective treatment in reducing stereotypical autism spectrum disorder (ASD) behaviors in children. The present study seeks to examine the underlying mechanism by considering the theoretical operant nature of stereotypy. Children with ASD (n = 30) who exhibited hand-flapping and body-rocking stereotypies were asked to participate in both control (story-time) and experimental (ball-tapping-exercise intervention) conditions. The experimental condition comprised 15 min of ball tapping during which the children were asked to tap a plastic ball as many times as they could. Results indicated that hand-flapping stereotypy was significantly reduced but body-rocking stereotypy following the ball-tapping-exercise intervention was not. These results not only confirm the positive impact of exercise intervention on stereotypic behavior as shown in many previous studies, but further suggest that physical exercise should be matched with the biomechanics of stereotypy to produce a desirable behavioral benefit.
大量证据表明，体育锻炼可能是一种有效的治疗方法，可以减少儿童自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）行为的刻板性。本研究旨在通过考虑刻板行为的操作性理论性质来探讨其潜在机制。研究招募了 30 名存在手拍和身体晃动刻板行为的 ASD 儿童，要求他们参加控制（故事时间）和实验（球拍打运动干预）两种条件。实验条件包括 15 分钟的球拍打，在此期间，孩子们被要求尽可能多地拍打一个塑料球。结果表明，手拍刻板行为显著减少，但球拍打运动干预后身体晃动刻板行为并没有减少。这些结果不仅证实了许多先前研究中运动干预对刻板行为的积极影响，而且进一步表明，体育锻炼应该与刻板行为的生物力学相匹配，以产生理想的行为效益。
