Aquatic Therapy for ASD

Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title:

Exploration of Aquatic Therapy in Children With Autism and Their Families

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05092321
• Other study ID #: 2019J0204
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 14, 2021
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: April 2024
• Source: Ohio State University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This is an aquatic occupational therapy group for children between the ages of 3-12 that have an autism diagnosis. Intervention will focus on increasing the child's safety swim skills.

Description:

Information will be collected from participants' guardians during an intake visit regarding a child's sensory processing deficits, movement abilities and exposure to swim skill instruction prior to the group. The group will provide swim instruction using the Halliwick approach to learning swim skills as well as other occupational therapy techniques such as shaping, therapeutic relationship and behavior management. Groups will have a minimum ratio of 1 staff to every 2 children, with the possibility of 1:1 ratio most days. There will be a certified lifeguard present at all times. Qualitative interviews and a follow up survey will be conducted with parents (ages 18+) to determine impact on families and individual participants. Swim skills will be tracked at each session via goal attainment scaling and daily documentation. Descriptive and correlational statistics will be completed as well as coding of interview and survey data. Participants can participate for one, 10 week session, or will have the option to participate in additional 10 week sessions until child participants top out on the WOTA or plateau in progress of swim skills.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 48
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: August 31, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 3 Years to 12 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• pre-existing diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder from a medical professional

• family interest in swimming

Exclusion Criteria:

• ventilation system for breathing such as trachea not capped

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Aquatic Occupational Therapy
Group of 4-8 children, paired with a swim buddy. Intervention techniques including discrete teaching, motor shaping, behavioral management, therapeutic relationship and individualized goals.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	The Ohio State University	Columbus	Ohio

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Ohio State University	Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in swim skills	Change in swim skills measured with Water Orientation Test-Alyn; higher scores mean a better outcome. Minimum score is 0, maximum is 27	baseline, pre-intervention; immediately after the intervention
Primary	Change in individualized goals	Goal Attainment Scaling to track change in other swim performance skills not measured above. Scores for each goal range from -2 (regression) to +2 (2 levels more than anticipated). A higher score indicates improvement.	immediately after the intervention
Primary	Change in parent comfort	Custom questionnaire using 5 point Likert scale regarding comfort and importance of water participation for the child. A higher score indicates increased parent comfort, which is the desirable direction.	baseline pre-intervention; immediately after the intervention
Primary	Parent perspective	qualitative interview regarding parent perspective of the the intervention	one time after 8 hours of intervention have been provided to the child participant