Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

A Wilderness And Art Therapy Program For Children With Social Concerns, Ashlynn C. Wardle

Honors Projects

For my honors project, I created an alternative therapy program for children with special needs. Activities were designed to support children with varied needs such as children with autism, ADHD, or learning disabilities. The program utilizes the most successful factors from the fields of art therapy, wilderness therapy, special education, applied behavior analysis, and speech and language therapy the program to form age appropriate, educational, and fun art and wilderness opportunities.

Inter-Professional Collaboration: The Impact Of Serial Versus Merged Treatment On The Behavior Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Robyn Starry

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Interdisciplinary collaboration is an innovative, resourceful approach to healthcare intended to positively affect patient outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to determine the efficacy of the serial exposure to three treatments, Applied Behavior Analysis, Speech Language Pathology, and Occupational Therapy, in comparison with an exposure to a merge of these treatments on child outcomes. During the serial treatment phases of intervention, three licensed professionals implemented core techniques from their respective disciplines. During merged treatment phases, a graduate clinician combined and implemented techniques from all three fields: differential attention, request sequences, sensory exposure, verbal/tactile cueing for postural alignment/control and …

The Significance Of Comforting Touch To Children With Autism: Sensory Processing Implications For Occupational Therapy, Guy L. Mccormack, Lisa Holsinger

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Children with autism have unusual sensory processing issues. The aim of this study was to examine how mothers comforted their children. Clinical observation has shown that mothers of children with autism often have difficulty calming their children. This study describes the differences in the response to comforting touch among children diagnosed with autism and normally developing children.

Method: The study was a self-report survey using a questionnaire to compare the responses of mothers of children with autism (N = 25) to mothers of typically developing children (N = 26).

Results: The results showed that the methods …

A Meta-Analytic Review Of The Efficacy Of Physical Exercise Interventions On Cognition In Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Adhd, Wei Z. Tan, Julie Ann Pooley, Craig P. Speelman

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This review evaluates the efficacy of using physical exercise interventions on improving cognitive functions in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This review includes a meta-analysis based on a random-effects model of data reported in 22 studies with 579 participants aged 3–25 year old. The results revealed an overall small to medium effect of exercise on cognition, supporting the efficacy of exercise interventions in enhancing certain aspects of cognitive performance in individuals with ASD and/or ADHD. Specifically, similar to the general population literature, the cognitive benefits of exercise are not consistent across all aspects …