Effects of Parent-child Co-participation in Physical Activity

Bayburt University40 enrolled

Overview

Literature reviews and studies of physical activity (PA) interventions suggest that active parental involvement is an important component of supporting PA levels in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Parents have also viewed these interventions as a valuable source of social support and motivation for themselves and their children with ASD; however, parents have reported a lack of PA interventions specifically involving parental involvement to increase PA levels in their children. To our knowledge, only a handful of PA studies in the literature have examined PA levels or fundamentals movement skills (FMS) in children with ASD and have included parental involvement. Overall, findings from previous studies have shown that PA interventions that include parental involvement successfully improve PA levels and FMS in children with ASD. Given the potential benefits and the increasing interest in family-based interventions, supporting parent-child co-participation in PA may be a possible strategy to promote PA among children and parents. To date, studies on parent-child co-participation in PA have mostly focused on improving PA levels and FMS in children with ASD using web-based interventions such as social media, websites, and online systems. Furthermore, with the exception of two studies, the focus of these studies was on PA levels and not FMS in children with ASD. Furthermore, not all previous studies have created PA groups with and without parental involvement to explore whether parent-child co-participation truly makes a difference. We addressed these limitations in the current study and used a design that included a parent-child PA group, a child PA group, and a control group to examine both PA levels and FMS in children with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parent-child co-participation on PA levels and FMS in children with ASD.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Interventions

A parent-child co-participation in physical activityBEHAVIORAL

Parents in PCG-A engaged in PA with their children three days a week. All parents attended the sessions and engaged in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs with their children. Children in CG-B engaged in PA with their peers three days a week without parental involvement, engaging in partner warm-ups, partner functional exercises, partner games, and partner cool-downs. Both intervention groups were compared with a control group. We instructed the control group to maintain their normal routines and activities throughout the intervention and asked them to participate in a pre-test and post-test. A demonstration strategy was used to teach the activities. We provided immediate feedback to encourage and support children with ASD and their parents. We also chatted with the children and parents at the end of each daily physical activity session to evaluate the effectiveness of the session and prepare them for the next session.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 4 YearsMax age: 11 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * willingness to participate in the study, * being the primary guardian of a child with ASD between, * having an ASD diagnosis confirmed GARS-2-TV, * being between the ages of four and eleven, * being able to walk independently. Exclusion Criteria: * those who do not attend at least one of the sessions of the training program, * children with physical health problems (based on self-report and clinical diagnosis) will be excluded from the study.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

The Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (LTEQ)

The Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (LTEQ) was used to assess children's PA levels before and after the intervention. The LTEQ consists of three questions that seek information on the number of times children engage in mild, moderate, and strenuous intensity PA for at least 15 minutes in a typical week. It was applied to the participants in the intervention groups twice, before and after 8 weeks.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes

The Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3)

The TGMD-3 examines 13 gross motor skills, divided into two subsections: locomotor skills and ball skills. The TGMD-3 has been used in children with ASD aged 4 to 11 years. The TGMD-3 has been reported to have acceptable validity and reliability when measuring motor skills in ASD children. The TGMD-3 contains 3 to 5 criteria for each gross motor skill, which are integral to each other. It was applied to the participants in the intervention groups twice, before and after 8 weeks.