Effect of Manual Therapy (Met) vs Conventional Therapy for Improving Tendo-Achilles (Ta) Flexibility and Foot Posture in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disorder of neurodevelopment, which affects individuals across social, ethnic, and geographic groups. Autistic children have difficulty with gross motor and fine motor functioning difficulties, including a wide range of signs and symptoms. Toe walking due to TA tightness is commonly observed gait in autistic children altering foot posture in them. The knowledge about the abnormalities can be useful for the assessment and treatment planning of ASD children. We evaluated TA tightness, ROM of the ankle joint, and compare the effect of manual therapy (MET) and conventional therapy for improving TA flexibility and foot posture. Methods: An RCT included 20 diagnosed autistic children(13male,7female) as per inclusion criteria the subjects were divided into two groups, i.e., group A and B, the group A was given Conventional Therapy in the form of passive stretching whereas Group B was given Manual Therapy in the form Muscle Energy Technique. The participants were clinically examined and evaluate TA tightness in the form of Elastography, Range of motion, and foot posture. Data were taken as pre and after post-intervention. Results: There were significant changes in elastography readings, foot posture index, and range of motion in both groups post-intervention, but significant improvement was observed in group B as compared to group A, i.e., p>0.05. Conclusion:This has been concluded that there is a significant effect of Manual therapy in the form of muscle energy technique for improving TA flexibility and foot posture as compared to conventional treatment.

Foot Print Analysis and Prevalence of Flat Foot among Children of Rural India – A Study Protocol

“…Flatfoot in pediatric age group is been as most controversial and burning topic for long time, which was questioning about the naturalness flat foot, which flatfoot is pathological, when to observe for flat foot, when to start treatment for flat foot, which is the best and specific conservative treatment for flat foot and when to take decision for surgical correction of flat foot. In general, Infants born with flexible flat foot, and natural arch of foot starts developing in their first decade of life [17]. This indicates that desorption of mid foot planter fat pad starts after the starting walk without support.…”

“…To study its prevalence this study is going to be conducted. Few of the related studies were reviewed [17][18][19].…”

Autism and Related Syndromes

“…An article was published around the corner of 1944 about the children who did demonstrate signs very identical to those of the kanner patient with only the difference of that the cognitive and the verbal skills were higher, this article was by Hans asperger who was an Austrian peadiatrics also unaware of kanner work [10]. In the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental diseases there was the first appearance of a diagnostic label of the terminology "infantile autism".Very much from that time the term has been changed along with the fact that the diagnostic criteria has widened [10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Elastography in Ta Tightness to Evaluate Muscle Physiology – A Diagnostic Approach

“…red is selected for 'softer' tissue encoding, blue for 'hard' and yellow / green for 'intermediate rigidity. (3)…”