Objective: This study aims at investigating the effects of two types of interventions, Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK) and exergaming (Kinect), on motor skills (MS) and executive functions (EF) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Materials and Methods: Sixty children, aged 6-10 years were randomly assigned to SPARK (n = 20), Kinect (n = 20), or a control group (n = 20). Children's MS and EF were assessed before and after the intervention. The SPARK and Kinect groups participated in an 8-week intervention; the control group received treatment as usual. Intention-to-treat repeated-measures ANOVA was used to examine the effects of the intervention. Results: For MS, a significant group X time interaction was observed for aiming and catching skills [F(2, 53) = 4.12, P < 0.05]; the SPARK group improved significantly from pre-to post-test compared with the other groups. For EF, a main effect of group was found for correct responses [F(2, 53) = 5.43, P < 0.01]. The Kinect group showed more correct responses than the SPARK and control groups. A main effect of time was significant for conceptual responses [F(1, 53) = 10.61, P < 0.01] and perseverative errors [F(1, 53) = 14.31, P < 0.01].
Conclusion:This study suggests that structured physical activity (PA) interventions that target specific MS improve motor function in children with ASD and exergaming could be effective for improving EF. Future research is needed to untangle the interaction between the type of exercise, traditional PA versus exergaming, and the dose associated with improvements in MS and EF in children with ASD.
The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and quality of interactions between 24 students (9 male, 15 female) in an Alberta elementary physical education class using video-modeling and three different peer-to-peer (P2P) evaluation methods. Nature of interaction was determined by the duration of interaction (total, on-task time, off-task time, neutral), the type of comments (positive, constructive, negative), and quality of interaction by the category of feedback (4 categories) from both the evaluators and performers. This study compared structured paper evaluation (SP), unstructured video evaluation using the video feature on iPads (UV), and structured video evaluation using a prototype app on the iPad (SV). The SV condition provided statistically significant results for evaluator on-task, evaluator off-task, and performer on-task, along with increased positive comments from evaluators. The SP condition had significantly more depth of feedback. This study concludes that the use of SV to deliver feedback in a P2P learning environment has the potential to improve the nature of feedback during peer evaluations.
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