Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with executive functions, cognitive processes that help to plan and control behaviour. Short bouts of physical activity can improve executive functions in children with typical development, but this has not been explored in children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to examine the immediate effect of two different exercise types on the sustained attention, a type of executive function, of children with ASD. Participants between 7-12 years of age completed three 20-minute experimental conditions, in a random order, on separate days: a circuit-based workout, treadmill walking, and sedentary movie watching. Immediately pre- and post- each condition participants completed a task to assess their attention, in addition to measures of motivation, task self-efficacy, and affect. Preliminary findings suggest greater improvements in attention following the circuit-based exercise in comparison to the other conditions. Participants also reported higher levels of motivation and greater self-efficacy toward completing the attention task following both exercise conditions in comparison to the sedentary condition. Lastly, participants reported the highest level of affect, or positive feeling state, during both exercise conditions (circuit and treadmill) in comparison to the sedentary condition. These findings suggest that a circuit-based workout is not only feasible for children with ASD but also leads to positive changes in executive functioning and feeling states.