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Activities For Children With Autism - If a child has an autistic disorder they are marked with three features, which include qualitative impairment of social interaction, qualitative impairment of communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. Individuals with autism often lack the motivation to exercise, which is necessary to help with heath benefits associated with physical activity.

Physical activity can also lead to positive self-esteem, behavior, happiness, and intellectual and social outcomes.  Children with autistic spectrum disorders may be at risk for inactivity due to social and behavioral deficits often associated with the condition, such as difficulties understanding social cues, making eye contact, playing imaginative and social games, engaging in sharing/turn-taking and reciprocal conversation, and making friends.

Introduce simple activities at first and then progress to more complex activities. Include activities that are enjoyable, and utilize the individual’s interests and strengths, but also include the four components of fitness, which include cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance (NCPAD, 2007). Specific content for each student should be based on his or her level of development in physical activities.
Activities For Children With Autism
The main objective is to provide opportunities for them to develop the skills necessary to play games and activities with their peers-those with disabilities and those without (Boswell, Decker, & Schultheis, 2000). Cardiovascular exercise is one of the four components of fitness that is significant for children with autism.

Cardiovascular exercise is important for individuals with autism not only for physical fitness and the resulting health benefits, but because studies have indicated that vigorous cardiovascular exercise decreases inappropriate behaviors and increases appropriate behaviors . Studies on participation in cardiovascular activities demonstrated improvements in attention span, on-task behavior, and decreased self-stimulating behavior .

Activities that can be used for cardiovascular fitness and endurance include the use of,  stationary bikes, stair steppers, and treadmills. Educators can also use locomotor patterns such as skipping, running, galloping, and hopping. These skills should be practiced at individual activity stations with one on one instruction. All individual activities can be performed in a productive and successful way.

Fun Activity Suggestions For Autistic Children

  1. Head to the swimming pool. Make a splashing game or a kick game. Get some simple pool toys or beach toys like beach ball, floating rings, etc. Remember to keep a good eye on the child while in a pool.
  2. In a class, you could print out some pictures of eating, sports, going to the bathroom, sleep and everything that may happen in their daily life. Let the child make a schedule, they should like this activity, because children with autism take constant schedules very seriously. And if the schedule they followed everyday is broken, it will ruin their day quickly.
  3. Big tupperware items filled with rice or beans will be fun, you can put little toys in them and have the autistic child put their hand into the rice or beans to find them. The game could make a mess, but they would love it.
  4. Sensory play is widely suggested, too. You could take the child to a children's museum if there's one nearby. Commonly, there will be something that could interests the child.
  5. Structured activities with a clear start, middle and end are always good for children with autism because they like rules, organization and structure. Gymanasitics is a common game that autistic children do well at since there is less reliance on language (children with autism often have little communication skills) but a lot of motor movement and imitation.
  6. If music can calm the child down, you can introduce different instruments to him, with some music playing gently in the background. You can let him beat a drum and learn different rhythms.
  7. There are some therapeutic horse riding groups that you can participate in, children can learn to feed and take care of horses in their lessons.
  8. Every child with autism is different, you should find out their likes and dislikes and continue to do the things he seems to enjoy.
There is a many way to improve and help students with autism achieve the highest level of independence, social interaction, and communication possible in their home, school and community.