Can You Have Autism
and Exercise, Too?

Absolutely YES!

Exercise provides a multitude of benefits for everyone, but especially for individuals with autism. And exercise is fun!

However, you will need to adapt the basic home exercise plan to create your own autism and exercise program.

Your child will obtain more exercise benefits if he is already eating a healthy diet with whole food supplementation.

Your child may have several problems that directly impact his ability to participate in exercise as well as neurotypical children. These problems are in addition to the basic deficits in communication abilities, social skills, and behavior.

Some of these problems are listed below.

• Coordination: clumsy, fall often, knock people over, run into people
• Visual Tracking: unable to follow balls
• Slow Mental Processing: slow reaction times, hard to anticipate
• Short Attention Span: poor coordination
• Fine Motor Skills: difficulty manually manipulating items

Therefore, you need to structure the exercise to the abilities of your child. You may even need to design an exercise program around the special interest to even get her motivated to exercise.

In particular, bilateral exercise improves communication between the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. Bilateral exercises include walking, bicycling, and jumping jacks.

Once you introduce your child to the autism and exercise program, they usually love it and want to continue it! You will see that neurological connections are strengthened leading to better trunk stability, balance and coordination. They will gain confidence and self-esteem.

Individuals with autism will have more difficulty with team sports than with individual activities. Understanding strategy, coordinating muscle groups, and visually tracking is difficult enough. Adding the social and communication factors may overwhelm your child.

However, team sports can also be a positive learning experience for everyone if awareness of the disability is understood by all.

The following two case studies show how we approached autism and exercise in our family before and after we knew about their diagnosis.

My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when he was 12 years old.

He first started soccer at 4 years old. He picked dandelions while everyone else chased the ball!

He tried soccer again at 6 years old. He had problems with falling and coordination. He was always accidentally colliding with others. However, his determination and perseverance helped him to eventually overcome these problems and to make a select soccer team at 13 years old.

He has always been impatient and dictatorial with others which infuriate teammates. We are still working on tolerance and the art of silence. He has improved tremendously.

He has a similar story with basketball, except that he also has difficulty with shooting due to poor fine motor control. Basketball overwhelms him more easily since there is so much strategy, and so many people in a smaller space. He also has slower mental processing speed which is difficult to compensate in a fast moving game. However, he managed to make and start on the varsity team of a small Christian school as an eighth grader.

Unfortunately, he was 12 years old by the time that he was diagnosed with autism. And exercise with the love of soccer and basketball was already ingrained in to his life. He does not want to change sports at this time. So, we are going to continue to work on fine motor skills as well as social and communication skills.

Participation in team sports has helped him to become a physically fit athlete and to manage stress. He is able to concentrate much better with exercise. He has learned valuable social and communication lessons. Overall, he has been blessed with his autism and exercise program.

My daughter was diagnosed with PDD-NOS when she was 8 years old. She first tried soccer when she was 5 years old. She did not like sweating and quit after one season.

Next, she tried gymnastics. However, she was extremely wound up afterward class most likely because the class was so disorganized. She spent most of her time jumping around in line instead of doing the activity.

She also tried a jazz class and a hip-hop class. However, she was rather uncoordinated and had a hard time following directions. She was so self-conscious about her performance which triggered anxiety. But, she actually did quite well.

Then, she was finally diagnosed with autism. Now that I understood her problems more clearly, I was able to design a better exercise program for her.

I purchased a mini-trampoline and put it in the middle of our family room. She jumps on it periodically for 30-60 minutes daily. Sometimes she does fancy leaps and jumps. She loves her mini-trampoline!

I also got pilates balls and a BOSU which are great for balancing and fidgeting and which she also uses throughout the day.

Recently we also purchased the Woggler . This equipment helps promote strength, balance, agility, and control which are all highly needed by individuals with autism. With the Woggler, she has so much fun while she is getting fit!

Since she loves animals, I also started her in horseback riding at a local stable. Horseback riding is a bit expensive, but it is much cheaper than occupational therapy!

She has learned to balance, to control muscle groups, to understand body language of the horse, and to follow directions. Horseback riding is a perfect exercise for her!

She is now happier and more confident with her autism and exercise program.

Now it is time for you to start a home exercise program for you and your child! Remember to check with your physician prior to starting any exercise program.

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