This study looked at a specific water-based occupational therapy program called AquOTic. The program lasted ten weeks and focused on building water competency skills. It was tested on children with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 5 and 9. The group included 37 children, most of whom were boys. They received care within a county therapy pool system.
The researchers measured changes using standard tools called the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and Goal Attainment Scaling. Results showed that scores for performance and satisfaction were significantly higher after the program compared to the start. The improvement was large, with effect sizes ranging from 2.1 to 2.3.
No adverse events or discontinuations were reported during the study. The findings highlight the value of this specific occupational therapy intervention. Readers should note that this was a pre-post cohort design based on a larger randomized controlled trial. This design means the results show a link between the therapy and improvement, but the study structure limits how much we can say about cause and effect.