| Purpose:Specific impairments and external environmental factors reduce autistic preschoolers' participation in physical activity,leading to poor physical fitness.The deficiency of social skills is one of the core defects of autism spectrum disorder,which poses a lifelong challenge to autistic patients.Executive function is a key mediating variable of the improvement of various defects of autistic individuals.Physical activity is a potential intervention strategy with positive results in improving cognitive function,social communication skills,and sensorimotor function,but research is scarce and its results are mixed.Besides,previous studies have focused less on preschoolers with autism.Therefore,it is necessary to construct Interactive Physical Activity program suitable for autistic preschoolers based on their characteristics,and conduct an experiment to verify its effects.Methods:First of all,through literature reviews and field investigation,from the angles of theoretical basis,purpose,content and implementation of physical activity,Interactive Physical Activity to cater for autistic preschoolers was constructed.Then,Interactive Physical Activity was revised practically through discussion,teaching action research,participatory observation in terms of purpose,content and implementation,and then Interactive Physical Activity suitable and practically feasible for autistic preschoolers came into being.Finally,a teaching experiment was conducted to compare the effects of Interactive Physical Activity and traditional physical education on autistic preschoolers' physical fitness,cognition and social skills.Results:(1)Interactive Physical Activity program for the preschoolers with autism should be constructed from four dimensions: theoretical basis,purpose,content and implementation of the program.Comprehensive and multidisciplinary theoretical support becomes inevitable.Interactive Physical Activity content should be interesting,comprehensive,suitable,and be able to reach moderate to vigorous physical activity intensity.3:1 student-faculty ratios of structured teaching organization,combined with appropriate prompt technology(bodily auxiliary technology,demonstration,modeling combined with instruction,and time delay),strengthening(material,spirit,strengthening,token economy),and visual prompts and demonstrations should be employed.Teaching materials that can motivate participants to learn and help build confidence should be used.Its reasonable duration is 40 minutes.A comprehensive assessment should be used to assess its effects.(2)Action research made the following modifications to Interactive Physical Activity programme: the implementation of the programme was transformed from structuration to semi-structuration.The ultimate physical activity content of Interactive Physical Activity culminated in Fruit Ninja Kinect,Tennis,Skiing and Just Dance Kids 2.Besides the original social training,random social interaction was added and dynamically adjusted.Incidental Teaching method was introduced to train the dynamic adaptability in social interaction.(3)The results of the teaching experiment showed that Interactive Physical Activities was better than traditional physical education classes in improving executive function(inhibition,working memory,flexibility)and social skills(social orientation,social cognition,social participation,social communication,self-regulation)of the autistic preschoolers(P <.05).The results of intra-group comparison showed that in terms of physical fitness,the physical fitness indexes of participants in the experimental group(except the balance beam)had significant changes every month(P <.05),the second and third months of the balance beam had significant changes(P <.05),and the traditional physical education had significant changes every month(P <.05).In terms of executive function,the inhibitory ability and flexibility of the participants in the experimental group changed significantly monthly(P <.05),and working memory changed significantly in the first two months(P <.05).In the control group,there were significant changes in working memory monthly(P <.05),and significant changes in inhibitory ability and flexibility at the first 2 months(P <.05).In terms of social interaction,the experimental group had significant changes in social orientation,social cognition,social communication and social skills every month(P <.05),and the first two months of social participation and self-regulation had significant changes(P <.05).In the control group,there were significant changes in social orientation in the first month(P <.05),social communication and social participation in the second month(P <.05),self-regulation in the last month(P <.05),and total social score in all three months(P <.05).Conclusions:(1)Interactive Physical Activity program is designed based on the defects,characteristics and differences of autistic preschoolers,which can trigger the migration of narrow attention of autistic children through human-computer interaction mode and integrate it into the physical activities of human interaction.Scientific design of objective system,content selection,organizational scheme implementation and application of teaching strategy are the guarantee of the effect of Interactive Physical Activity program.Interactive Physical Activity program has enriched and developed the theories of physical activity intervention in autistic Children.(2)Action research is an effective method to modify physical activity program practice of preschool children with autism.Researchers,special education institutions and teachers should form a scientific research and teaching community,which can combine theory with practice,solve practical problems and improve the intervention effect.(3)Both Interactive Physical Activity and the traditional physical education class can significantly improve physical fitness,executive function and social skills of preschoolers with autism.compared with traditional physical education classes,the effect of Interactive Physical Activity is faster,and more significant. |
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