Sunshine and Superheroes

I’m baaaaack!!

After taking a much needed aestivation (yeah, I looked it up!) I have decided to re-commit to blogging on a regular schedule. I will do approximately 3 per week, mixing topics between current research/what’s in-the-news, practical and helpful tips for the home or classroom, and lastly I would like to explore the challenges of being a sibling to a person on the autism spectrum.

  To begin I would like to take a stab at a recent article I read regarding folks with autism being less active than their neuro-typical peers. Since I never fully trust articles I find on the internet I went straight to the source, the original researh paper written by Tyler, MacDonald, and Menear (1), and here is the link if you want to read it too: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/312163.  

So what these ladies were aiming to learn was if kiddos with autism are less physically active and less physically fit than typical children of the same age, and if so how is it related to their ASD diagnosis. Even though the sample size was small, they were able to conclude that children with an autism diagnosis do in fact have less strength and are less active, but they performed comparable to their typical peers in flexibility, aerobic fitness, and their BMI. 

For parents and educators who work with children on the spectrum, this is not news. We find this to be true in many of the children we work with on a daily basis, but its kind of nice to have it clarified in writing, so we know we weren’t imagining things! I mean, sometimes it feels like there is nothing worse in my house than asking my teenage daughter with autism to go for a walk! She once told me a story about gym class, when they were trying to establish each students’ baseline strength levels, and when it was her turn she could barely pick up the (empty) bar for weight lifting. Her story made me laugh but it can be frustrating for both her and me when she cannot do simple household tasks due to her lack of strength. I think that is one of the directions this type of research needs to explore next, how the lower strength and activity levels impacts the quality of life for folks with autism. Will it be difficult for them to carry their groceries home, push a lawnmower, move a chair? And what can we do to recognize if struggles are based on physical limitations, using information from studies such as this? I realize the ladies who conducted the study were looking more at the health implications of being more sedentary, which often leads to obesity and many other health problems, and I hope more people take the initiative to dig deeper into this potential risk factor as well. However, I would also propose that researchers look at the more practical applications, such as how parents and educators can add a little movement and weight bearing activity to our daily routines. That would hopefully eliminate some of that performance gap the researchers mentioned, and decrease some of the struggles we watch these children experience each day.





1. Kiley Tyler, Megan MacDonald, and Kristi Menear, “Physical Activity and Physical Fitness of School-Aged Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders,” Autism Research and Treatment, vol. 2014, Article ID 312163, 6 pages, 2014. doi:10.1155/2014/312163