PHYSICAL EXERCISE IN THE CLASSROOM TO IMPROVE THE BEHAVIOR IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

The aim of this work was to analyze all the studies that measured the medium term effect of educational interventions based on physical exercise on the behavior of children (6 - 12 years of age) diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A bibliographic review was done in three databases (initial search n = 184: PubMed n = 24, SportDiscus n = 98, Web of Science n = 62). Search dates were limited from January 2000 to January 2018. A total of five longitudinal studies with intervention met the inclusion criteria. All the studies are recent, the oldest was published in 2011. The five studies used physical exercise programs in the school setting -3-5 days / week - with duration of 2-20 weeks. The sessions carried in class days lasted 15-30 minutes, the ones realized in school holidays, four hours. Three obtained improvements in behavior after the educational intervention, however two studies did not obtain significant changes in the measured variables. It is concluded that the integration of physical exercise in the school environment improves behavior (restrictive or repetitive interests and stereotyped behaviors) in children with ASD. As future perspectives we suggest to deepen the influence of the confounding factors and the differential effect of the short, medium and long term effect of these educational interventions based on physical exercise.