EFFICACY OF STRUCTURED YOGA INTERVENTION FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD): AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Abstract

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, highly prevalent among the children all over the world. Autism is one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) a group of conditions that also includes Asperger syndrome, PDD not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), Rett syndrome, and childhood disintegrative disorder. Autism spectrum disorder affects individual suffer from lack of social communication, sensory integration problem, motor problems, combined with repetitive behavior, restlessness, sticking to sameness, with the very little attention span etc. In the latest development research indicates that up to eighty percent of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children suffer from sleep-related problems and gastrointestinal disorder (GI disorder) which leads to different types of digestion related problems, improper food habits which make them restless and manifests in daytime behavioral problems. Yoga was found to be very effective among all other alternative therapies for ASD children. Yoga was shown to be an effective alternative therapy for mental health with positive changes at both physiological and psychological levels. Extensive research has gone on using yoga as an alternative therapy for children with special needs. The aim of this study is to develop and test the efficacy of structured yoga intervention for children with ASD in special schools involving parents and teachers.