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A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study

(1) Background: Physical activity is important for children with autism spectrum disorder. This study aimed to analyse autistic children’s and their parents’ preferences between group and individual physical activity, while exploring potential social barriers that they might encounter. (2) Methods:...

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Autores principales: Vella Fondacaro, Daniel, Vella Fondacaro, Francesca, Camilleri, Nigel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9180169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35682489
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116906
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author Vella Fondacaro, Daniel
Vella Fondacaro, Francesca
Camilleri, Nigel
author_facet Vella Fondacaro, Daniel
Vella Fondacaro, Francesca
Camilleri, Nigel
author_sort Vella Fondacaro, Daniel
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: Physical activity is important for children with autism spectrum disorder. This study aimed to analyse autistic children’s and their parents’ preferences between group and individual physical activity, while exploring potential social barriers that they might encounter. (2) Methods: Retrospective analysis identified 701 new referrals received by the Maltese national child and adolescent mental health service, between 2016 and 2017. Of them, 24 received a sole diagnosis of autism and 10 were chosen via purposive sampling. A semi-structured interview guide was created, including readability testing, translation/back-translation, inter-rater agreements, and focus group testing. Parents were informed, consented, interviewed and thematic analysis carried out. Further quantitative data were tabled accordingly. (3) Results: Only one child met World Health Organisation recommendations for physical activity. More children preferred individual sports while parents described more benefits with group sports. Parents’ perceived benefits with group sports included better socialization, while improved levels of self-esteem and coping with anxiety were highlighted benefits for individual sports. Parents felt misunderstood, burnt out, and described a lack of autism-friendly sports facilities, including geographical disproportionation of adequate facilities on the island. Too much screen time was a major parental concern. (4) Conclusion: Recommendations aim to develop sport therapy systems and well-resourced services in Malta. Staff training is recommended to improve service quality.
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spelling pubmed-91801692022-06-10 A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study Vella Fondacaro, Daniel Vella Fondacaro, Francesca Camilleri, Nigel Int J Environ Res Public Health Article (1) Background: Physical activity is important for children with autism spectrum disorder. This study aimed to analyse autistic children’s and their parents’ preferences between group and individual physical activity, while exploring potential social barriers that they might encounter. (2) Methods: Retrospective analysis identified 701 new referrals received by the Maltese national child and adolescent mental health service, between 2016 and 2017. Of them, 24 received a sole diagnosis of autism and 10 were chosen via purposive sampling. A semi-structured interview guide was created, including readability testing, translation/back-translation, inter-rater agreements, and focus group testing. Parents were informed, consented, interviewed and thematic analysis carried out. Further quantitative data were tabled accordingly. (3) Results: Only one child met World Health Organisation recommendations for physical activity. More children preferred individual sports while parents described more benefits with group sports. Parents’ perceived benefits with group sports included better socialization, while improved levels of self-esteem and coping with anxiety were highlighted benefits for individual sports. Parents felt misunderstood, burnt out, and described a lack of autism-friendly sports facilities, including geographical disproportionation of adequate facilities on the island. Too much screen time was a major parental concern. (4) Conclusion: Recommendations aim to develop sport therapy systems and well-resourced services in Malta. Staff training is recommended to improve service quality. MDPI 2022-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9180169/ /pubmed/35682489 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116906 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Vella Fondacaro, Daniel
Vella Fondacaro, Francesca
Camilleri, Nigel
A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study
title A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study
title_full A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study
title_fullStr A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study
title_short A Qualitative Exploration of Parental Views When Comparing Individual to Group Sports in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder—A Pilot Study
title_sort qualitative exploration of parental views when comparing individual to group sports in children with autism spectrum disorder—a pilot study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9180169/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35682489
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116906
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