Increasing Physical Activity In Children With Autism Through Music, Prompting, And Modeling
Published online on February 15, 2017
Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate strategies to increase gross motor task completion (GMTC) in physical activity programming for children with autism spectrum disorder in a school setting. A multiple baseline design across five participants was used compare the impact of the presentation of music with lyrical instruction alone and with a teacher modeling and providing verbal prompting for increasing GMTC. Furthermore, the extent to which the GMTC generalized to a novel song following training was also evaluated. All participants engaged in low levels of GMTC during baseline and in the music only conditions. Improvements were found when modeling and prompting were introduced; however, the change was modest. Finally, none of the participants demonstrated generalization to a novel song. In light of the findings, implications for schools to consider physical activity programming will be discussed.