Aquatic Therapy

Children on the spectrum can benefit greatly from physical activities. Some of these benefits include easing repetitive behaviors, increasing attention span, and providing the opportunity to interact with other children. Aquatic therapy can be a valuable addition for kids on the spectrum to develop their motor, cognitive, and social skills. This intervention provides the child a setting where they can relax and enjoy play. Occupational therapists are there to assist the children in their interventions but parents are also welcomed to enjoy this experience with their children. Many children have benefited from aquatic interventions but this practice is not as common as other types of therapies used for kids on the spectrum. Aquatic therapy

is useful for the development of an autistic child however; there is continuing research on its effectiveness.

Aquatic therapy has been used for rehabilitation purposes for over a hundred years. It was mainly developed to help individuals with musculoskeletal or neuromuscular conditions. Over time, it expanded to provide therapies for children with muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. Recently, clinicians have expanded the use of aquatic therapy to assist children on the spectrum. It allows the children to improve their physical functions and enhance their confidence and self-esteem.
Aquatic therapy is as a therapeutic procedure that attempts to improve the function of an individual through aquatic activities supervised by an occupational therapist. The water properties of buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure, and thermodynamics have been acknowledged to help the effectiveness of therapies in the aquatic environment. Buoyancy helps reduce the load of body weight and can be used to assist, support, or provide resistance. Hydrostatic pressure exerts an equal and consistent amount of pressure to the body and provides resistance to help increase muscle strength and aerobic capacity without overstraining the body. Thermodynamics refers to the temperature of the water that helps relax and soothe the body. Aquatic therapy can help to restore, extend, or maintain function for persons with chronic disabilities or syndromes. Psychological benefits include improved mood, self-esteem, and decreased anxiety. It also provides strength, coordination, and range of motion, perceptual and spatial awareness, muscular and cardiovascular endurance, and relaxation. For children on the spectrum it assists in language development, decreased behavioral problems, and improved ability to control sensory input.
The two most important benefits of aquatic therapy for children with ASD include increased tactile input and better social interventions.

The deep pressure provided by the water will increase the child’s tactile input. For children with ASD addressing this input will help the child become calmer and more attentive and responsive. Completing gross motor activities can help decrease social anxiety. Children can share toys and participate in fun games together allowing social interaction. Often swimming across the pool can encourage speaking in children who have anxiety. Therefore, it is important for them to be able to do activities that aide and encourage social

interactions.
Aquatic therapy is an intervention technique that is within the occupational therapy scope of practice. Occupational therapists are not required to have a specialized aquatic certification or training. The therapist focuses on the sensory processing, sensorimotor performance, social behavioral performance, self-care, and participation in play, to gain benefits from the properties of water. However, the activities can be applied across a variety of contexts and will cater to an individual’s needs and factors.
The use of aquatic therapy for intervention treatments on children with ASD is relatively new and there is a small amount of research on the topic.

However, a study conducted in 2006 by Vonder Hulls and his colleagues reported that aquatic therapy increases the abilities and skills of a kid on the spectrum. They conducted a survey that analyzed the efficiency of aquatic therapy to children between the ages of four and ten with ASD. This survey focused on identifying the perceived benefits of aquatic therapy from clinician’s perspectives. The survey consisted of three sections. The first section determined the eligibility which required children between the ages of four and ten. The second section consisted of four questions related to the length, duration, and frequency of the aquatic therapy and the third section consisted of twenty-four questions relating to the therapist perceived outcome of aquatic therapy for the children with ASD. Out of the seventy-eight, surveys that were sent out only forty-eight were returned. Sixty-three percent of the aquatic therapist who returned the survey provided therapy for young children with ASD. The aquatic therapies ranged from thirty minutes to an hour with a frequency of one to eight classes per month. The shortest duration of completed treatment reported was three months and the longest being two years. Most of the clinicians reported a substantial increase in skill performance and eight-percent reported positive changes.

The therapists reported a slight or substantial increase in attention, muscle strength, balance, touch tolerance, initiation, and maintenance of eye contact, water safety, and swim skills. All therapists stated that the children enjoyed aquatic therapy.
As the reported incidence of children with ASD increases, there is a greater need for therapy options to address the functional limitations that these children encounter. In order to understand the effects of aquatic therapy for children with ASD, more research is needed to explore how clinicians are using this technique and to determine its effectiveness.