Date of Graduation

Spring 2014

Degree

Master of Science in Athletic Training

Department

Kinesiology

Committee Chair

Tona Hetzler

Abstract

Literature suggests that children who fall under the category of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have a lag when it comes to developmental milestones. More specifically, children who have been diagnosed within the ASD show a lack in fine motor skills when compared to the general population. The purpose of this project was to test the effects of a crawling program on the fine motor skills of children (ages 7-19) with ASD. A partial lag design approach was used in order to test 50 children who have been diagnosed with ASD. These 50 participants were randomized into experimental and lag control sample groups. All participants participated in the crawling intervention, with post-tests that measured performance at the end of each week to see if their fine motor skill levels were improving. The results suggest there was a significant increase in the participants' fine motor skill levels after participating in a crawling intervention. The younger participants in the study showed the most improvement in their fine motor skills. As shown in this study, subjects undergoing a crawling intervention developed an increase in fine motor skills. Implementing other components within the neurodevelopmental sequence holds great promise for facilitating the rehabilitation of individuals with fine and gross motor skill deficits.

Keywords

corpus callosum, creeping, cross lateralization, dysfunction, impairments, milestones, neurodevelopment

Subject Categories

Sports Sciences

Copyright

© Kristian Leigh Stewart

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