Moving your body can do more than just build strength. For children with autism spectrum disorder, regular exercise may play a key role in developing physical coordination. A large review of data from over 1,000 children found that exercise programs led to significant improvements in overall motor skills.
These improvements were seen in both gross motor skills, like running or jumping, and fine motor skills, which involve smaller movements like grasping objects. While the data is still exploratory, researchers noticed a pattern regarding how much exercise is needed. They saw peak effects for overall motor skills around 46 sessions of 45 minutes each, and for gross motor skills, around 44 sessions of 47 minutes each.
It is important to note that these specific patterns for how many sessions are needed are still being explored by researchers. However, the overall finding remains clear: exercise is a meaningful way to support motor development in children with autism.
