European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science ISSN: 2501 - 1235 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1235 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1101196 EVALUATION OF PARENTS' THOUGHTS ON EFFECTS OF SPORTS ON CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER Fatih Işık1, Mustafa Zahit Serarslan2 1 2 Independent researcher Assoc. Prof. Dr., İstanbul Gelişim University, School of Applied Sciences, Turkey Abstract: The aim of this study was to assess opinions of families whose children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders on the impact of participation in sports on children. The research was carried out using qualitative method in a phenomenological design. The study group consists of 8 families of children with autism spectrum disorders that are doing sports for at least one year, and those families are selected according to "convenience sampling" of purposeful sampling methods. The data were collected by a semi-structured individual interview form based on review of literature, expert opinions and pilot practice. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the collected data. The questions in the interview form were designed to cover the development of children's motor skills, mental skills, daily life skills, problematic behaviors, social skills and sporting branches. According to research findings, it has been found that children's motor skills, mental skills, daily life skills, problematic behaviors, social life skills and sport skills have been developed and changed positively in so many ways. Keywords: autism, sports, children 1. Introduction Autism is diagnosed as a neurological disorder that can affect the structure or functioning of the brain, which is under developmental disorders (Hollender-Nowinski, 2003). Autism causes people to encounter some problems in their behavior and in Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 253 Fatih Işik, Mustafa Zahit Serarslan EVALUATION OF PARENTS' THOUGHTS ON EFFECTS OF SPORTS ON CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER interacting and communicating with other people. Autistic children, who seem physically healthy, differ when their motor development is compared to their peers. In terms of physical functioning, although they seem to be able to perform many talents at any time, performing some talents takes time. It is seen that while the autistic individuals perform any movements, their preparedness of motor skills is not as good as coevals' Fazlıoğlu, 2004 . Since autistic individuals cannot express themselves smoothly, participation in physical activity positively affects their physical, social, and emotional structures, resulting in reduced uniform behavior and the development of more complex skills. "The development of skills supports the acquisition of complex abilities by laying the foundation for other body movements" (Sarol, 2013). Although sport activities are essential for all people to have a healthy life, it is an extremely ignored subject for children with autism. Participating in physical activities as much as possible is a neglected field despite its effects on children with autism like reducing their repetitive movements, making the desired reactions more viable, socializing and providing reflex (Penny 2008). Creation of body awareness in autistic individuals, the cooperation with other children may be possible with the application of motor skills programs in the development of adaptation process to the environment Kayaoğlu, 2008). Autistic individuals, who are identified as disinterested in all events in their environment and asocial people who have torn their ties with the outside world, may put their families in difficult situations due to the behavior they exhibit in society. For this reason, families want to continue to train their children in the house. Sports activities also help autistic individuals to get out of their accustomed family experiences and communicate with different people in different places. By this means, they can communicate with the individuals they have not known before and can participate in physical activities (Atalay, 2011). There are many benefits of participating in physical activity for individuals with autism, such as reducing self-stimulating attitudes, raising appropriate responses, and creating opportunities for socialization Yanardağ, 2007 . Physical activities prepare an environment for people with autism to move away from their parents and to communicate with different people in different social areas, in an unfamiliar environment, with people whom they have not communicated with before. Therefore, autistic individuals can communicate with different people they do not know, and may be involved in activities that require a certain order (Atalay, 2011). Regular sports and physical activities play an important role in preventing the problems of autistic individuals. Physical activities have an important role in reducing behaviors composed of meaninglessly repeated stereotyped movements of children with autism, as well as settling and relieving them (Todd, Reid, 2006). European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 254 Fatih Işik, Mustafa Zahit Serarslan EVALUATION OF PARENTS' THOUGHTS ON EFFECTS OF SPORTS ON CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER Physical and motor activities not only improve the quality of life of autistic individuals, but they also provide behavioral and mental development. According to Şahin, mental development is the development of competencies such as perception, thinking, reasoning, and comprehension that are necessary for learning, in consequence of learning by doing through activities Şahin, 2002). The effects of regular sports activities on body systems of trainable mentally disabled children and autistic individuals can be arranged into four groups. The first of these is the effects on the cardiovascular system. As a matter of fact, the sport reduces the heart rate, the amount of blood and oxygen going to the heart-feeding coronary arteries increases as the time between two beats increases. Each beat increases the amount of blood pumped into the body. Blood pressure gets regulated. It improves blood distribution in skeletal muscles. The second is hemodynamic effects that improve the fluidity of the blood and increase the tendency to clot. The third is the effects on metabolism. These include changing the cholesterol structure, increasing the level of glucose in the blood, reducing insulin and uric acid levels by increasing the amount of myoglobin in the muscle cells and beneficial lipids in the heart and also by reducing the harmful ones. The last one is endocrinological effects. It increases the levels of adrenaline, cortisol and growth hormone. The most important feature that distinguishes a mentally disabled child from his/her peers is the way he/she behaves. Mental development involves personal changes in every child, as well as some general characteristics related to mental processes and functioning (Güven, 2003). Learning of individuals with autism and mental disabilities is difficult and takes time. At the same time, some concepts and talents cannot be gained at a later age. Mentally disabled people need to have, even a little, special training to gain abilities to detect and learn like their healthy peers. In such disorders, it is aimed to develop creativity and playful skills with special physical education activities (Özer, 2001). From the group of trainable mental disabilities, autistic children and individuals demonstrate both physical and mental recovery by joining social life through sports. Sports have contributions such as reintroducing them to society, discovering their talents, and recognizing their interests. Also, healthy individuals should be aware of and support autistic people who must be reintroduced to society and who develop their physical activities together with their families. In this respect, the findings of this study are presented based on the opinions of the parents who have children with ASD in terms of determining the effects of sports on children, their motor skills, mental skills, daily life skills, problematic behaviors, social life skills and developmental effects in sports branches. In this context, the main problem of the study is "What are the remarks of families with children with autistic spectrum disorders on the effects of participating in sports on their children?”. Sub-problems related to the main European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 255 Fatih Işik, Mustafa Zahit Serarslan EVALUATION OF PARENTS' THOUGHTS ON EFFECTS OF SPORTS ON CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER problem can be ordered as “What are the remarks of the parents on benefits of sports for ASD children's motor skills, mental skills, daily life skills, problematic behaviors, social skills and development in sports?” In this study, it is assumed that parents were following their children's experiences and interacting closely with their children during and after the activities; that their families have observed their children objectively and have fully perceived the contents of the questions; that the families responded sincerely and honestly to the questions directed at the interviews. The aim of this study that the data is limited with observations and remarks of 8 families with ASD-diagnosed children in Istanbul province, is to examine the effects of participation in sport activities of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder on the basis of the views of their families. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejep/article/view/1266 European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 12 │ 2017 256