Desafios e mudanças: uma proposta de programa de exercícios físicos para crianças com transtorno do espectro do autismo (TEA)

Abstract

The body schema of an autistic child, known as with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is disconcerted, according to Levin (2000). This is not because of a fail on its structure, but due to the absence or lack of another schema, which does not cover its spectrum, which did not follow the body contours, which did not generate wishes, image, which, to be generated, will need another that imagines that there is a certain person, not a thing or an object. Only thus, the child may mirror itself on those images, on desirer look, on another that grants this way the possibility of construct a great comprehension of its body and its functioning. From this point of view, a child with ASD needs to be stimulated, and the physical education professional, who is working with it, must consider the actual characteristics and needs of students with ASD. Therefore, we present this dissertation in three articles, namely: (i) “motor assessment on children from 2 to 8 years old with autism spectrum disorder”, on which we describe the motor tests applied to children with ASD and their response; (ii) “ratio between motor performance and practice of physical exercises on children with autism spectrum disorder”, attempting to perform a survey of how a child with ASD develops through practice of regular physical exercises, which remain scarce for this specific target; and (iii) “practice of physical exercises and teacher-student relations for learning and socialization of children with autism spectrum disorder: the parents vision”, a qualitative descriptive study performed by analysing the content on which, by means of unstructured interview, we sought to better understand the view of parents and carers about the practice of physical exercises for motor development of their children. In fact, the research was performed aiming to propose a physical exercises program for children with autism spectrum disorder, and its practice, in order to respect the biological individuality of each child. Thus, questions were made to parents about service for their children and about how their daily routine was, after they being integrated in the project of physical activities for autistic children. By using motor tests, however, was possible performing necessary intervention for their best motor development. Therefore, we found that the practice of physical exercises on children with autism spectrum disorder is beneficial to their motor performance, and directing at their development as a whole, and may potentiate their daily routine and improve their life quality, since individuality of students with ASD is respected and adapted according to its characteristics.