INRODUCTION: Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present several effects on the neurological development, with difficulties on social, behavioral and communication abilities that negatively affect daily life activities. Judo is a sport with great pedagogical tradition that provides benefits in children with ASD further than the physical activity by itself. PURPOSE: to study the evolution of psychosocial behavior of children after an adapted judo program, a study of feasibility
METHODS: 11 children of both sexes (age 11,36 ± 2,34 year, height 156,78 ± 7,37 cm, and weight 56,71± 7,14 kg) participated in the study after obtaining the IRB approval, informed consent from their parents/legal tutors and informed assent from themselves. After 8 controlled weeks without an intervention, all the children participated in an adapted judo program once every week during 12 weeks. Psychosocial behavior was measured with the Gilliam Evaluation Scale used for ASD diagnosis (GARS-3), who includes 6 sub-scales: Repetitive Behaviors, Social Interaction, Social Communication, Emotional Responses, Cognitive Style, Maladaptive Speech. The GARS-3 was applied to the same sample three times: baseline, after 8 weeks without intervention (as control assessment) and after 12 week of intervention. Descriptive for all variables and an ANOVA of repeated measurements were calculated to study differences Baseline, pre and post intervention (p<0.05).
RESULTS: No differences were found between the first and second assessment in all six sub-scales, as expected. Between the second and the third assessments, there were significant differences in the Social Interaction sub-scale (17.7±10.1 vs 9.1±4.3; p<0.05) showing an improvement post-intervention, as a low value does not correspond to a typical ASD behavior
CONCLUSIONS: Adapted judo program can improve psychosocial behaviors in children with ASD. More research is needed increasing the number of participants and the number of sessions per week.