Now here’s the paradox, and the reason I clearly separate sports from fitness in the Autism Fitness Hierarchy of physical activities. Chloe is what the kids today would refer to as a “rock star” with respect to how well she did with the program and the exuberance she brought into the group. If it were soccer camp, or tennis camp, or we were performing competitive team sports as the curriculum, Chloe, and every other kid, would have probably fared pretty poorly. Add to that the typical useless (and I mean that in the most understanding and nurturing way possible) instructor input of “you’re not trying,” “no, don’t do it that way,” or “look at how _________ does it,” and you have the industry standard, Grade A formula for Kid Hates Physical Activity. Using sports as the guiding methodology for a fitness program is similar to using a screw driver for every DIY job because it is the only tool you are familiar with and know how to use. Actually, the screw driver has more practical applications than most youth soccer leagues.

The thesis statement is not to degrade sports. Certainly much can be gained from participating in an extracurricular team activity. There is, however, the issue of what the goals are for a physical education program. Most children are not going to play team sports and if they do, probably not beyond high school (the percentage drops into single digits at the collegiate level). Now consider children and young adults with autism. Before I continue, here are some FUN FACTS about ASD and movement:

-          Many young individuals with autism experience deficits in gross motor skills, kinesthetic (body) awareness, age appropriate strength and coordination levels, and tolerance of physical activities

-          Sports combine highly finite (specific) movement patterns with abstract concepts (game theory)

-          For many children with ASD “Hit the ball and then your team will get points” is, amazingly, not highly reinforcing

-          Sports do not teach basic movement patterns: pushing, pulling, locomotion, bending, and rotation

-          Most children (neurotypical or otherwise) do not have the prerequisite physical skills to play sports

My argument here is that because we as a culture approach physical education as “all sports all the time,” children are not receiving movement education and, just as importantly, the opportunity to play. Free play is nearly forgotten here in the U.S. Free play is not “Let’s pick up a basketball and play basketball even though nobody instructed us to,” rather it is the random, chaotic, and beautiful harmony of vigorous activity, from running, skipping, and climbing a forest trail to monkeying around on the jungle gym (at the time of this writing lawyers have not yet made jungle gyms completely obsolete). Many neurotypical children no longer engage in creative, vigorous play because that is not what happens in the video game or on the TV program (“They don’t do it that way, they do it this way on level 17 of Grand Theft Dump Truck and that’s the way we have to do it here!”) Oh, plus recess is nearly non-existent too. That helps as well. If we now consider these factors as related to the young autism population, there is quite the opportunity for…not too much. Both in my experience and in published research, young individuals with ASD do not engage in imaginative play or regular physical activity all too often. It is a common skill deficit. There has been a recent resurgence in the idea that play is an important aspect of not only childhood, but adulthood as well. Not merely because play teaches skills that can be generalized to other life demands, but important on its own.

For my athletes, developing the basic foundations of movement is pivotal. I do not care if they play sports or not (with the latter being the most common). Fitness is an activity, yes, but also an important life skill. Teaching these movement skills to young people with autism requires consideration of both physical abilities and cognitive processing skills. If random, vigorous play is not part of a child’s (or adolescent, teen, adult) repertoire, it is likely that the skill deficit is a contributing factor. A child cannot jump up stairs, climb across a rope bridge, and crawl around if they lack the prerequisite skills to do so. The big *Secret Magic Formula* of my fitness programs looks like this:

Identify Physical Abilities -à Teach exercises in a structured format for mastery à Generalize those skills to novel people/environments (i.e. don’t just do frog hops with me, but with mom and dad too) à Use mastered skills in random play situations (home, outdoors, etc.)

I regularly have to field the question of whether I “do yoga” with my athletes. I typically ask the person why they are inquiring. I usually get one of three responses:

a)      Blank stare

b)      “Oh I heard it was good for them”

c)      Something about a body/mind connection deal they read about in Aardvark Pose Quarterly

What are the physical needs of each athlete? What skills do they have and what deficits exist? What activities are appropriate to teach now that will enhance their mobility, strength, and body awareness, and what skills will generalize to daily life? It certainly is not as fancy a label to claim “I am teaching Rob to pick up a 4 pound medicine ball and throw it to me while maintaining eye contact” as is “Rob is learning camel pose and deep breathing to enhance his body-mind connection.” But here is the second big secret of the article: Picking up a ball and throwing it when you did not have that skill five minutes ago is body-mind (new neuron pathways formed in addition to neuromuscular enhancement if we need to get technical).

Chloe didn’t need to have specific names for all of our activities to enjoy and conquer them. Some activities I do not even have names for because I make them up on the spot (play). The activities though, are built around individual abilities which are what makes them fun and beneficial. You can call a program whatever you want, but semantics are not going to be responsible for a program’s success. I have yet to work with one athlete on the autism spectrum impressed by my Master’s degree in Exercise Science, but many who now love to move around on a regular basis. I’ll accept, humbly, the tradeoff. It is okay if a child does not play sports. It is not okay if they do not engage in physical activity because sports are all that is available.  Fitness, as any life skill, must be taught, supported, and enjoyed. Start seeing it less through “Play ball!” and more simply “Play!”

© Eric Chessen

Socialization is a difficult concept to generalize because human interaction is nuanced and varies tremendously across people, situations, and environments. A child may learn to initiate interaction by saying “Hello, my name is Max” to any and all people when he walks into a room. Immediately some concerns arise. If Max walks out to go to the bathroom and reenters the room, does he then say “Hello, my name is Max” to everyone again? If he is in the company of family or an already familiar person, does he use the same greeting? I’ve seen all of these scenarios plus some other novel variations. The common theme is overgeneralization of the skill. There is also the problem of conceptualizing social interaction.

Consider the motivation to interact with others from the perspective of a child on the spectrum. Verbal communication may be aversive because social initiation/interaction has not been paired with reinforcement, a deficit in functional communication targets, or a combination of these confounds. Saying “Hello my name is Max” may very well be a mastered skill, however the function of the behavior (talking to others) may simply serve the purpose of escaping the situation (if Max says hello he gets to leave the room and engage in a preferred activity). Teaching socialization skills during physical activity can help in developing not only the verbal communication and language targets, but in concept formation as well.

When working with a group of students it is necessary to first develop individual skills. Using a parallel play model, students can be taught activities alongside one another without having to learn interactive skills immediately. With groups, there tends to be a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional abilities. Beginning with the social aspect of a fitness program can delay progress in lower-functioning individuals. In a situation where a highly skilled, highly motivated child is placed with a lower skilled, low motivated partner, neither one is receiving optimal benefit from the activity. The higher functioning individual may become frustrated with the slower pace of the other, and the low functioning child struggles to complete the activity, engages in a maladaptive behavior (such as aggression or escaping), and essentially nobody learns or achieves anything.

Beginning with the achievement of prerequisite skills is necessary to have a common physical ability among a group. Looking at basic physical attributes, children (and everyone for that matter, but that is a separate article) should be able to perform pushing, pulling, bending, rotational, and locomotion. For groups these skills are best taught as individual targets but can be chained together for the purposes of fun, creativity, and sequencing. Obstacle-courses are fantastic for building the skill sets necessary for peer play. In addition to learning and practicing one skill after another, students are working “independently together” throughout the activity. The added skills of attending, waiting, focus, and timing are practically built in to this type of system.

An obstacle course that encompasses all the major gross motor patterns could include hops, bear walks, swinging a rope back and forth, throwing a ball, hopping, and running back to the start line. In this scenario, each child is able to develop the skill(s) at his/her own pace. Once these basic skills are mastered, including a partner exercise, such as throwing a light medicine ball back and forth, or even handing the ball off to one another can be incorporated into the activity. The socialization component is nearly automatic. The secondary skills involved in the obstacle course (attending, focus, and listening) have the opportunity to generalize to the tandem exercise.

When children are active and engaged, the finite aspects of socialization (gestures, intention, and contingent responding) become more apparent. As opposed to rote memorization of dialogue, socialization training during exercise includes a dynamic component. The situation is constantly changing, even during a simple game of catch, which requires both passing and receiving the ball. Of course, socialization training across environments, particularly the home and classroom is necessary from the standpoint of optimal development and acquisition.

Both physical fitness and social interaction are vital aspects of human development and well-being. Either is a significant predictor of overall well-being in both child- and adulthood. Establishing these skills, and the motivation to engage in activities that combine the two, early is pivotal to establishing long-term success. As both are important, there is no cutoff point at which these abilities cannot be taught and incorporated appropriately into an education program. Socialization is how we interact with others and enrich our lives. Fitness allows us to live uninterrupted from the problems created by a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle and opens up new opportunities from vocational to the community. Remember, exercise is something we do. Fitness is something we live.

I have an issue, more of a professional resentment really, of edibles being used as long-term reinforcers in ABA-based programs. If a child’s token board is all set up for him to earn a lovely helping of cauliflower, I’m thrilled. Most of the time however, edible reinforcers fall into the category of “that which is consumable yet not really food,” including chips, candy, fast food, and other comparable types of slow-acting toxins. In addition to being devoid of nutritional value, these edibles are typically high in calories and sugars. I will leave the remainder of the toxic foods discussion to our resident expert, Julie Matthews. Suffice to suggest that earning a candy bar for performing exercise is somewhat counterproductive. The interdisciplinary model is essential for wellness being approached holistically.

Suppose a fitness professional works with a child on the autism spectrum twice a week. Those two 45 minute sessions can have a great impact, however there are roughly 166 hours left in that week. The other activities and stimuli that a child comes into contact with can greatly enhance or impede their fitness progress. I get giddy when I have a parent who wants to implement an exercise program at home. As a fitness professional, I obviously want to oversee the program and make sure that all movement and ability goals are accounted for. The big secret though, is that the more the individual comes into contact with exercise and movement training, the more beneficial impact I can have as a professional. Many of my athletes exhibit movement deficits. Research has demonstrated that children on the autism spectrum have a higher incidence of gross motor impairments than neurotypical peers. With the added issue of ineffective PE programs and a sedentary lifestyle (T.V, computers, sitting at a desk all day), physical fitness is not typically an area of optimized development within the ASD population. As a result, much of what I do with my athletes would be categorized as “remedial” exercise, focusing on reintegrating proper movement, range of motion, and a very basic level of strength.

If parents, educators, and related service providers are willing to incorporate fitness into daily life, educational, and vocational activities, the role of the fitness specialist does not become obsolete, rather, he/she is able to provide more age-appropriate and complex exercise programming. Additionally, the skills learned in the gym or fitness environment have more opportunities of generalization to novel situations, which is, by the way, the foundation of why we engage in exercise. Sitting for more than about 30 minutes in a classroom is difficult for most children, developmentally disabled or otherwise. It is difficult for adults. It is difficult for me, who in the process of writing this article has stood up no less than ten times to play with my exercise equipment or play with the dog or wander around the house. One of the most beneficial aspects of exercise for special needs populations is that physical activity creates a situation in which the individual is both active and engaged. I have a wonderful speech pathologist who works in on my PE classes because it is an opportune time for eliciting language targets. The students are not only intently focused on the activities, but the physical nature causes a response in both the central nervous system and in many centers of the brain, including those responsible for speech and short-term memory. While I give this example to represent an interdisciplinary model, there is no reason why many different skill acquisition programs cannot be combined with exercise to enhance the quality of experience.

We must erase the backwards idea that some kids are good at physical activities and some kids are good at math.  Some kids will always show a greater aptitude in math, and others will be more physical and athletics-oriented. Not everyone can win at everything, nor should they. Of course, this notion of “jock or numbers cruncher” came out of the sports-oriented culture that has dominated PE for decades. Once movement and general physical fitness become the primary focus, it will be far easier to develop a healthier, more active, and more engaged special needs population. Through interdisciplinary programming, and the magic of parents and professionals actually speaking with one another, a holistic approach is not a mirage in the desert of special needs services, but a very real and important construct.

Sharing expertise makes one a better practitioner, and is reciprocal in nature. Professionals who hold children to the same standards, behavioral and otherwise, in conjunction with parents who provide ongoing life skill education in the home setting are very likely to have successful children on their hands. Consistency is a key component of skill development. When goals and the process towards them are shared, success is more likely to follow. Remember, exercise is something we do. Fitness is something we live…

I advocate fitness from a family perspective because in the vast majority of situations, a child on the autism spectrum is going to have similar lifestyle patterns as his/her parents, at least in terms of access to opportunities. Have a household with a TV in every room? Greater access to a sedentary, couch-based home life is created. Cabinets filled with edibles (I resist the initial impulse to call anything in a box food) high in sugar, trans fats, and devoid of nutrients? A greater tendency for the curious combination of obesity and malnourishment exists. Children on the spectrum have enough challenges without medical complications due to a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. As do most parents. Developing a time budget to include exercise and begin a more balanced diet may prove difficult initially, but will ultimately prove to be the most valuable investment a family can make.

Establishing a joy of movement with young individuals on the autism spectrum requires a steady focus on developing skills and consistently reinforcing successes. Regular access to exercise modalities and situations is crucial. It is important to consider that individuals who have difficulty moving correctly are often reluctant to move. Adults with social phobias do not typically decide to begin holding court in the middle of a busy shopping center, attempting to address as many passer-bys as possible. That’s usually my job. Point being, we are unlikely to master skills that we have limited access to practicing regularly. If skills remain poor, the likelihood of developing a desire to engage in these activities remains low, except in the case of karaoke. Since the focus here is on the young ASD population and not who sings the best version of Tom Jones “It’s Not Unusual” down at the Ale House on Thursdays, we’ll limit the focus to implementing family-based exercise programs.

I have spoken with parents who cite a “lack of time” as the primary reason for not working on movement regularly with their children. Granted, their lives are significantly full with commitments to work, family, and the daily nuances that arise. The most prevalent issue, however, is that exercise and wellness are not considered priorities in the household, and are subject to being overshadowed by other activities. If you have 45 minutes to watch television, stop watching television. Take some time to learn about movement and begin incorporating it into the daily routine. I’ve been asked about time limits on exercise programs, typically in the form of “How long should each session be?” For younger children, movement should be practiced throughout the day. Half hour to 50 minute movement specific sessions are fine, however a  five to 20 minute family movement break can be just as effective, fun, and productive in establishing a routine and ensuring healthy bodies. Decades ago, when physical education, recess, and after school play were the norm, all-day interval movement was a regular occurrence. Now that same proposition seems completely alien. This, coincidentally, is also why the current generation is wrought with health issues and is predicted to have a life expectancy lower than the previous generation.  This is not an issue merely pertaining to longevity, but quality of life as well.

Consider your top priorities in life. I would imagine that “family” comes in near to the top of the list. What exactly does this mean, though? Certainly providing food, shelter, and clothing are necessary aspects of attending to the best interests of your household. Health and wellness sound as though they should be considered in daily life, but often the small nuances and chores take precedence, and everyone winds up watching television and eating fast food. The priorities we claim and our actions towards making them a reality do not always match up. Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables are known to be beneficial and aid in the prevention of diseases, including some forms of cancer. How many are we incorporating into meals on a regular basis? Exercise is the other major factor in overall wellness. Knowing this is important, but incorporating exercise into daily life is necessary in order to derive its many benefits. The family fitness model is ideal because it turns healthy living into specific goals that are met each day.

The New Year is always rife with marketing ploys for fitness gadgets, gyms, and other “health” products. Fortunately, the young special needs population is largely ignored by those purveyors who profit on the common misunderstanding of what fitness is and how to achieve health through daily practice. The truth is that expensive equipment and large commercial fitness centers are not necessary to incorporate fitness for everyone in the family. Pushing, pulling, climbing, throwing, bending, rotating, and practicing picking up heavy things and putting them down safely and correctly are the cornerstone of a successful exercise program. For everybody. Developing exercise programs for young individuals on the autism spectrum does not differ all too much from working with other youth populations. The focus should be on developing sound movement patterns, strength, coordination, and body awareness using a variety of activities and progressions. Progress may be a lengthier process with the autism group, though the outcome absolutely, unequivocally justifies the time spent developing and implementing the program.

I can say that the results of well-developed physical education programs for young individuals with autism are amazing. I have seen short-term increases in attention, body awareness, gross motor skills, strength endurance, and coordination. In the long-term, these students will be enriched with the self-esteem and self-efficacy needed to succeed in many areas of life. Exercise is the gateway to optimized living. Invest the time to incorporate fitness into your home and you will not only put family first, but far out ahead.

All classrooms exhibit variability in the skills, talents, and learning styles of the students. Heading over to the gym or out on the field often deepens the chasm between those who excel, those who exhibit greater deficits, those who are reluctant, and those who are reluctant to excel. When Physical Education (PE) began focusing on sports tracking rather than general fitness tracking, a curious, though predictable pattern emerged; those students who developed an aptitude for athletics participated more in gym class, and those students who had difficulty with or no interest in baseball, basketball, or soccer began to wane from the big, florescent-lit rooms. Basing a PE curriculum on sports is similar to basing a science curriculum on particle physics. It is too specialized, too compartmentalized, and excludes just about everybody. Additionally, sports movements are pertinent only to sports. They have little carryover to life situations, or any situations, beyond the athletic purpose they serve. If a foundation of fitness is not developed, sports will not fill the void.

So you have a group of 5^th graders, all on the spectrum, all of different cognitive, emotional, and physical developmental levels. Creating and implementing a fitness program seems a challenging task, but it is certainly attainable and can yield great success for each student. The class situation will be different from 1-to-1 sessions in several ways:

Exercise program must focus on general goals for all students while keeping in mind those of high and low skill levels

Exercises and activities chosen cannot be too difficult for the least-skilled athlete in the room

Highly detailed data collection is difficult during the course of the session/period

Individual progress on specific goals may be slower than 1-to-1 sessions

Despite the potential obstacles, the group setting does pose some rather desirable attributes. The socialization aspect is quite evident, as athletes playing alongside their peers have the opportunity to engage and interact with each other. Exercise provides a unique medium for establishing friendships and camaraderie through teamwork. Using partner exercises, such as wheelbarrow walks, team scooter races, or simply throwing and catching a light medicine ball requires that the students acknowledge and help one another in succeeding throughout the activity. Of course my high school athletes tend to find the jeering and ridiculing portion of social interaction to be more desirable, but given the age-appropriate nature of their vocalizations, and the generally benevolent nature of their interactions, they are afforded a bit more leniency. Few environments allow for these lively exchanges. The fitness environment is a haven of controlled chaos, in which shouting, laughing, and non-stereotypical jumping up and down are completely acceptable and, in fact, encouraged. I frequently question the rational of agreeing that teenage boys with ASD have no outlet for their energy, then seating them in classrooms for six hours.

The group exercise session should focus on developing big gross motor movements through a variety of exercises and activities. I typically begin my younger classes with simple warm-up movements including bending knees and arms up. From there, we may work on a hopping activity using differently shaped or colored spot markers on the floor. When the students are not kicking them across the room and stimulus control is in place, spot marker hopping provides a multitude of benefits to skill sets including attending, visual and auditory processing, reactive speed, hip mobility, force generation and deceleration, and stability. This is just the warm-up.  This type of initial activity is also helpful for the instructor, who is able to observe each athlete individually and pick up on major deficits in physical ability. As assessment is more difficult with groups than in 1-to-1 scenarios, Warm-ups that focus on individual movement can prove valuable for developing the daily or longer-term program.

Mobility work is absolutely essential for all young populations. Mobility refers to having flow and proper mechanics through various movement patterns. Knees turning in while squatting, arching the back while kicking, and turning the entire shoulder girdle instead of just the neck and head when orienting are all signs that movement is inhibited and deficits/imbalances are present. All of my athletes, regardless of age, perform bear walks and crab walks regularly. My second week of class I had at least 3 students look up at me as soon as we approached the mat and ask, knowingly, “Bear walks?” I answered in the affirmative. Animal-based movements are perhaps the best mobility enhancers for young and older athletes. Bear walks/crawls, crab walks, spider crawls, frog jumps, and kangaroo hops all entail usage of the large muscle groups, stabilizers, and kinesthetic awareness. We’ll do bear walks ‘till the cows come home..to find bears in the field.

Developing fitness programs for school or group settings can be a more demanding task than creating an exercise protocol for an individual. Still, it is imperative that group exercise be a major focus of special needs schools and programs, as it is highly unlikely, and not completely desirable, that each young person on the autism spectrum receive 1-to-1 physical education (unless parents really step it up with the family wellness lifestyles). The major movement for inclusive fitness will take place in educational settings. In addition to providing each student with the opportunity to become healthier, more, active, and discover a joy of movement, physical education provides socialization, self-esteem, and a more attentive student.  I do hope this whole “gateway towards optimized living” thing I talk about is beginning to make sense. Remember, exercise is something we do. Fitness is something we live.

Factor one involves the physiological and motor deficits that many children on the spectrum experience.  A stack of research has demonstrated that individuals with autism have greater motor impairments than normally developing peers. These issues may be related to gait, strength, kinesthetic, or body awareness, and general motor planning. Physiological deficits will often lead to inhibited or distorted movement, meaning that even if an individual wants to perform an action (running, for example) they may not be able to complete the activity or will do so with poor form. It is crucial to consider that just because a child is performing an action; it does not mean that the movement is being performed optimally.  Suppose I am asked to add 7 + 7 and my answer is 18. I have performed the math equation, but I have not satisfied it correctly.

The second factor in the difference between exercise for neurotypical versus ASD individuals is aversion to movement. Many children on the spectrum exhibit defensiveness and a lack of motivation to engage in novel behaviors, including movement and exercise. As spontaneous and imaginative play are often absent during early years of development, the exploration of new movements is generally a skill that must be taught. Additionally, motivation and reinforcement become far more pressing issues with the autism population than with neurotpyical peers.

Given these two concepts, physical deficits and psychological/emotional aversion to movement, it is imperative that exercise programs are designed with movements taught in an incremental fashion.  I have taught pushups to my athletes on the autism spectrum, just as I would employ the exercise with a typically developing child. The difference, however, is using a systematic approach that teaches the exercise step-by-step using, in ABA terminology, a Task Analysis. To use the pushup example, my first step is having the athlete lie prone on the floor. The second step is placing the hands at the sides of the chest, third step is pushing the body off the floor, and the fourth to lower the body back down. If an individual requires additional steps, such as beginning by only pressing halfway up, no problem. The Task Analysis allows for individual needs.

Aversion to movement requires parents and fitness professionals to use highly salient motivational and reinforcement systems so that exercise becomes a preferred activity.  Token boards (to earn a reinforcer), verbal praise, and music during exercise can all aid in the pairing process. Establishing a joy of movement is typically not a short or simple procedure with respect to the autism population. Nonetheless, it is a crucial aspect of optimal development requiring persistence, ingenuity, understanding, and dedication. The eventual outcome is worth the effort.

Now consider the average day of a child on the autism spectrum. Bus. Classroom. Home. Possibly an after-school activity or specialist before dinner. The problem is that many children on the autism spectrum have impairments and deficits in gross motor patterning. Essentially, they experience difficulty moving with efficiency, ease and joy. While several therapeutic strategies (such as ABA) now exist to intervene and optimize behavioral, educational, and emotional development, physical fitness is still a large void. Physical fitness, because it is misunderstood as a concept, is relegated to the area of sports. For children with autism, sport-related objectives and rules, as well as social interaction, are typically areas that are challenged. What happens now is one of two possibilities; a higher functioning child engages in the sport and gets little to no benefit from participating, or, in the second common scenario, the child fails at the sport, and it is decided that physical fitness is not all that important.

We first have to establish that fitness is an important aspect of development and success in life. Fitness is our ability to perform the activities that are required throughout daily life, and meet new/novel challenges with the most efficient and able movement possible. Self-efficacy is a rather large consideration for most ASD individuals, and it would probably be important to consider their ability to navigate their way through the day when discussing goal-setting. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that regular exercise has beneficial effects on cognitive functioning and emotional regulation. If cognitive, emotional, and social abilities are such vital issues in autism, why have we eliminated, or at least ignored, one of the most proficient methods for instilling these qualities?

Sports demand highly specified movement patterns that have little crossover or generalization to daily life. General fitness, in the form of bending, pushing, pulling, rotating, and locomotion, have carryover to most life situations, and do not require a thorough understanding of game play, rules, and objectives for a child to succeed. General fitness, it so happens, is also required for ANY child to succeed at a sport. It is the bridge between gross motor development and all higher stages of movement, from sports to individual fitness programs. The key in developing fitness programs for young individuals on the autism spectrum is to simplify movement patterns and integrate each new movement in a way that allows the child to meet goals incrementally and successfully at each stage.

Our bodies evolved to respond to stimuli or “commands” from the brain. The remarkable reality is that our bodies will perform movements regardless of our readiness or ability to safely and efficiently negotiate the action. If we were unable to complete actions our body was not ready to perform perfectly, there would be no pulled hamstrings on the track, no herniated discs at the factory, and no tennis elbow. Muscle compensations occur when there is an imbalance between muscle groups and/or a weak and inhibited muscle. With respect to the young autism population, muscular imbalances can develop as a result of pre-existing movement deficits combined with sedentary daily routines and a lack of vigorous physical activity. Here’s the equation:

Movement Deficit + Compensatory Movement Pattern x Continued Cycle of Inactivity = Muscle Imbalances and Poor Quality of Gross Motor Skills

As discussed in previous FBF articles, physical fitness is a gateway towards a wide range of abilities and options in life. A foundation of poor movement quality will often result in a decreased motivation to engage in novel play or regular physical activity. For younger individuals, both neurotypical and on the autism spectrum, muscular imbalances can be easily addressed and remedied with some smart programming and ingenuity. The majorities of movement imbalances that I come across with my athletes are hip-based, and usually evident in poor gait and posture. The typical “intervention” involves, strangely enough, hip-based exercises and activities.

One of the big gross motor movements is squatting, or a low bending of the knees. This action can be used as both an assessment and as a fitness activity integrated into a physical education program. What we are after is hip-flexion, or a bending motion. Individuals with tight hip-flexors often lean forward when attempting to perform a low squat, or rise up on their toes with the heels off the floor. A compensation pattern I’ve found to be quite popular in the autism circle is bending with straight legs and a rounded back, bypassing the whole leg-bending ordeal entirely. This type of compromise can not only lead to poor postural stability, but to injury as well.

Fortunately, there are PLENTY of different exercises and activities that can be used to develop proper hip flexion. I have found the “Grab Ball Complex” (GBC) extremely effective in teaching children on the spectrum how to perform a squat properly. The GBC is performed by holding a ball slightly lower than the athlete’s hips (about knee level), and having them grab and then pass the ball back to the instructor. Monster walks, which consist of taking BIG steps across a particular area of space, are another great hip-flexion exercise, particularly when used as a warm-up. Having trouble coming up with some squatting variations? Just consider the goal of getting the butt close to the ground with the feet planted on the floor and design the activity around that. Get creative and fun, and make sure the athlete can perform the activity independently before moving on to more challenging exercises. Remember, exercise is something we do. Fitness is something we live.

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