CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the current study was to implement a specialised group intervention programme to improve the gross motor and social skills of selected children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) between the ages of eight and 13 years.

The current study had the following specific aims:

1. To establish the level of overall gross motor and social skills of a selected group of children with ASD.

2. To determine whether a group intervention programme could improve gross motor skills. 3. To determine whether a group intervention programme could improve social skills.

CONCLUSION

The Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2) and the Social Responsiveness Scale- 2 (SRS-2), were used in the current study to determine the gross motor and social skills of children with ASD and to test the effect of the motor intervention. Conclusions will now be made regarding the impact that the 12-week group intervention programme had on these two test scores. The following conclusions reflect on the discussion presented in chapter 4.

THE MOVEMENT ASSESSMENT BATTERY FOR CHILDREN-2 (MABC-2) Total motor proficiency

Children with ASD have been found to have poorer motor skill proficiency than children with other disabilities or typically developing children (Pan et al., 2009:1299), yet, there have not been many motor skill interventions conducted on children with ASD.

The current study found statistically significant improvements in total motor proficiency, as well as in balance skills over time between the experimental and control groups. It shows that the 12-week group intervention programme helped improve the total motor proficiency and balance skills of children with ASD. The experimental group made significant improvements in total motor skills after receiving the 12-week group intervention programme, whereas the control group showed a slight decrease in scores at post-test, although they showed higher baseline scores compared to the experimental group at pre-test. Standard scores reflected the improvements made by the

88

experimental group. At pre-test three out of four participants fell into the red zone and one participant fell into the amber zone of movement capabilities according to the MABC-2. Post-test found that every participant in the experimental group had made considerable improvements in total motor performance by proceeding into the next zone. One participant even moved up two zones. These results demonstrate the importance of motor skill interventions in children with ASD.

Pless et al. (2000:188) also found similar results after implementing a 10-week group motor skill intervention in children with definite and borderline motor difficulties. Studies implementing motor skill interventions on children with other disabilities and typically developing children have also found similar results (Mahoney et al., 2001:159,253; Bardid et al., 2013:4575).

Manual dexterity

The manual dexterity subtest was not the main focus of the current study; but, it is just as important as gross motor skills because children with ASD also experience delays in fine motor ability which affects other aspects of development such as academics.

Unfortunately, the current study did not find any statistically significant improvements in manual dexterity from pre- to post-test between the experimental and control groups. The experimental group did, however, show slight improvements in standard score, although not significantly, in the fine motor tasks after receiving the 12-week group intervention programme while the control group showed a small decrease in fine motor skills. The control group, however, presented higher baseline scores compared to the experimental group at pre-test; therefore, there was relatively more improvement for the experimental group.

These results indicate that the 12-week group intervention programme could have improved fine motor skills significantly over time, if there was a larger sample size. The small gain in scores within the experimental group may have been because every cool-down activity within the gross motor programme consisted of activities which involved precise and accurate movements of the hands and fingers, which are used during fine motor tasks. Furthermore, the children may have struggled with understanding instructions of the MABC-2 tasks, and therefore, this might have contributed to the children scoring poorly.

Literature on the effectiveness of a motor intervention programme on fine motor precision in children with ASD has yet to appear. Nevertheless, studies have found significant improvements in fine motor performance in children with other developmental delays and disabilities after receiving movement programmes (Charles & Gordern, 2007:772; Peens et al., 2008:320).

89

Aiming and catching

Finding that here has been limited research conducted on the effects of motor skill interventions on aiming and catching skills of children with ASD. Therefore, the current study has tried to bridge that gap.

Unfortunately the current study found no statistically significant improvements in aiming and catching over time between the experimental and control groups after the 12-week group intervention programme, however, statistical significance was observed within the experimental group which did not occur within the control group. This shows that if the current study had a larger sample size, significant results may have been found over time between the groups.

These results indicate that the 12-week group intervention programme which incorporated the practicing of throwing and catching skills in a supportive and fun environment could have the power to positively impact on the object control skills of children with ASD, therefore, larger sample sizes should be used in future research. The small increase scores of the control groups might have been observed because individuals in the control group carried on with their usual recreational activities, which may have included some form of object control skill participation. Similar studies have also found that control groups also showed improvements in object control skills (Pless et al., 2000:188; Goodway & Branta, 2003:42).

The significance observed within the experimental group in the aiming and catching subtest might be, because the 12-week group intervention programme allowed children to practice throwing and catching tasks. Corresponding results however, have been found by Goodway and Branta (2003:42), after implementing a 12-week fundamental motor skills intervention programme amongst developmentally at risk pre-schoolers. Similar results have also been found after typically developing children received motor interventions to improve throwing and catching skills (Revie & Larkin, 1993:32,37; Bannett et al., 1999:220,228). However, there have been conflicting results found amongst typically developing children (Bardid et al., 2013:4575). Therefore, further research is needed as to the extent to which motor skill interventions improve object control skills across all children.

Balance

Children with ASD have been found to be impaired in complex balance tasks which require accuracy and precision (Travers et al., 2013:1568,1574). Hence, these children need opportunities to practice balance skills, since other areas of development may be affected.

90

Statistically significant improvements in balance were found in the current study from pre- to post- test between the experimental and control groups. These results show that the 12-week group intervention programme made positive changes in balance skills over time in children with ASD. This signifies the importance of motor skill interventions on balance proficiency in children with ASD. The control group showed a decline in their balance skills, as this group did not have the opportunity to practice these skills twice a week for 12-weeks. Although the experimental group showed significant improvements it is important to acknowledge that the control group again scored higher at pre-test on the balance subtest of the MABC-2, therefore there was relatively greater improvements within the experimental group. Cheldavi et al. (2014:10,14) found similar improvements in balance after a 6-week balance training intervention programme on 20 boys diagnosed with high functioning autism.