Inclusive physical education program of schoolchildren with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose was to develop an inclusive physical education program for schoolchildren with ASD and experimentally test its effectiveness. Materials and methods: An inclusive physical education curriculum for children with ASD was made up and incorporated into the process of physical education in secondary schools. At the beginning and the end of the pedagogical experiment, 12-year-old children were tested in the experimental (involved in the author's program, n=9) and control groups (involved in the traditional curriculum, n=11). The indicators of psychophysical fitness of children were determined according to the results of 19 test exercises. The reliability of the differences was determined by the Mann-Whitney U test.  Results: Under the influence of the author's program, physical fitness of children of the experimental group improved significantly. Whereas the trend towards improving almost all indicators of the physical fitness of children with ASD in the traditional program has not been confirmed statistically. The traditional physical education program was most effective in promoting flexibility (inclinations forward) and coordination (passing and catching a ball against a wall) in children with ASD. Conclusions: The author's program was proven to be significantly more effective than the traditional ones in the formation of the strength of shoulder extensors and hand flexors, fine coordination of hand muscles, the speed-strength of leg muscles, and balance. This allows us to recommend it for use in physical education lessons in institutions of general secondary education.