One- And Two-year Outcomes of Treating Preschool Children with Autism with a Qigong Massage Protocol: An Observational Follow-along Study

Silva, Louisa Mt; Schalock, Mark; Gabrielsen, Kristen R.; Hd, Gretchen

doi:10.4172/2327-5162.1000216

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Mean autism severity assessed using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale 28 was reported to decrease by 44%, with 26% of children moving out of autistic range during the course of this 2-year study. 29 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Mechanisms of Qigong Sensory Training Massage for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

Jerger

Lundegard

Piepmeier

et al. 2018

Glob Adv Health Med

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ObjectivesDespite the enormous prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), its global impact has yet to be realized. Millions of families worldwide need effective treatments to help them get through everyday challenges like eating, sleeping, digestion, and social interaction. Qigong Sensory Training (QST) is a nonverbal, parent-delivered intervention recently shown to be effective at reducing these everyday challenges in children with ASD. This study tested the feasibility of a protocol for investigating QST’s neural mechanism.MethodsDuring a single visit, 20 children, 4- to 7-year-old, with ASD viewed images of emotional faces before and after receiving QST or watching a video (controls). Heart rate variability was recorded throughout the visit, and power in the high frequency band (0.15–0.4 Hz) was calculated to estimate parasympathetic tone in 5-s nonoverlapping windows. Cerebral oximetry of prefrontal cortex was recorded during rest and while viewing emotional faces.Results95% completion rate and 7.6% missing data met a priori standards confirming protocol feasibility for future studies. Preliminary data suggest: (1) during the intervention, parasympathetic tone increased more in children receiving massage (M = 2.9, SD = 0.3) versus controls (M = 2.5, SD = 0.5); (2) while viewing emotional faces post-intervention, parasympathetic tone was more affected (reduced) in the massage group (p = 0.036); and (3) prefrontal cortex response to emotional faces was greater after massage compared to controls. These results did not reach statistical significance in this small study powered to test feasibility.Discussion/ConclusionThis study demonstrates solid protocol feasibility. If replicated in a larger sample, these findings would provide important clues to the neural mechanism of action underlying QST’s efficacy for improving sensory, social, and communication difficulties in children with autism.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Mechanisms of Qigong Sensory Training Massage for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

Jerger

Lundegard

Piepmeier

et al. 2018

Glob Adv Health Med

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“…When compared to no-treatment controls, children showed more pronounced improvements in sensory responses, self-regulatory abilities and receptive language, as well as reduced symptom severity (Silva et al, 2015). A longitudinal follow-up study confirmed the massage beneficial effects over the long term (Silva and Schalock, 2016).…”

Section: Self-other Disconnection: the Case Of Autismmentioning

confidence: 67%

Interpersonal Affective Touch in a Virtual World: Feeling the Social Presence of Others to Overcome Loneliness

2022

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Humans are by nature social beings tuned to communicate and interact from the very beginning of their lives. The sense of touch represents the most direct and intimate channel of communication and a powerful means of connection between the self and the others. In our digital age, the development and diffusion of internet-based technologies and virtual environments offer new opportunities of communication overcoming physical distance. It however, happens that social interactions are often mediated, and the tactile aspects of communication are overlooked, thus diminishing the feeling of social presence, which may contribute to an increased sense of social disconnection and loneliness. The current manuscript aims to review the extant literature about the socio-affective dimension of touch and current advancements in interactive virtual environments in order to provide a new perspective on multisensory virtual communication. Specifically, we suggest that interpersonal affective touch might critically impact virtual social exchanges, promoting a sense of co-presence and social connection between individuals, possibly overcoming feelings of sensory loneliness. This topic of investigation will be of crucial relevance from a theoretical perspective aiming to understand how we integrate multisensory signals in processing and making sense of interpersonal exchanges, this is important in both typical and atypical populations. Moreover, it will pave the way to promising applications by exploring the possibility to use technical innovations to communicate more interactively in the case of people who suffer from social isolation and disconnection from others.

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“…Furthermore, we found that outcome measures in most prior studies were based on questionnaires and scales evaluated before and after the intervention, and that there was a lack of studies that explored the mechanisms that underlie core symptom improvement. Presumably, massage adjusts the body and mind via sensory processes [ 70 , 71 ] and neural and hormonal regulation (eg, changing oxytocin levels).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Parent-Delivered Traditional Thai Massage in Children With Autism: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Ruan¹,

Eungpinichpong²,

Wu³

et al. 2023

JMIR Res Protoc

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Background Although many autistic children receive massage as a complementary therapy, it is not included in evidence-based practice for autism because evidence of its efficacy is lacking. Further, prior studies have failed to identify objective indicators of core symptoms or elucidate their mechanisms. Objective We developed a parent-delivered traditional Thai massage (TTM) intervention for children with autism, aiming to experimentally determine whether children with autism truly experience positive effects from parent-delivered TTM and determine possible mechanisms of the observed effects. Methods A 2-armed, parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted between February 2022 and June 2022. Forty-eight children with autism (aged 7-12 years) were recruited from the Hainan Special Education School and randomly assigned to either a parental TTM or control group at a ratio of 1:1 based on random numbers generated with Online Research Randomizer. The generated sequences were concealed in an opaque envelope. Individuals in the parental TTM group received 16 parent-delivered TTM sessions over 8 weeks at the school’s health room after school, and the control group maintained a normal daily routine. Outcomes were assessed on admission, after 8 weeks, and at a 2-month follow-up and included the effect of massage treatment on autism symptoms, measured with the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist score (evaluated by parents and a blinded teacher), physiological parameters (ie, heart rate variability and gait), and the Parenting Stress Index, Fourth Edition–Short Form. Results We finished all data collection on June 20, 2022. Data analysis will be started, and we expect to publish results in 2023. Conclusions This study will provide further evidence for massage treatment of autism and provide support for family-based care. Trial Registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2100051355; https://tinyurl.com/3dwjxsw5 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/41839

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One- And Two-year Outcomes of Treating Preschool Children with Autism with a Qigong Massage Protocol: An Observational Follow-along Study

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Neural Mechanisms of Qigong Sensory Training Massage for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

Neural Mechanisms of Qigong Sensory Training Massage for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Feasibility Study

Interpersonal Affective Touch in a Virtual World: Feeling the Social Presence of Others to Overcome Loneliness

Physiological and Psychological Effects of Parent-Delivered Traditional Thai Massage in Children With Autism: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

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