Aquatic Therapy for ASD

Exploration of Aquatic Therapy in Children With Autism and Their Families

This is an aquatic occupational therapy group for children between the ages of 3-12 that have an autism diagnosis. Intervention will focus on increasing the child's safety swim skills.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Aquatic Occupational Therapy

Detailed Description

Information will be collected from participants' guardians during an intake visit regarding a child's sensory processing deficits, movement abilities and exposure to swim skill instruction prior to the group. The group will provide swim instruction using the Halliwick approach to learning swim skills as well as other occupational therapy techniques such as shaping, therapeutic relationship and behavior management. Groups will have a minimum ratio of 1 staff to every 2 children, with the possibility of 1:1 ratio most days. There will be a certified lifeguard present at all times. Qualitative interviews and a follow up survey will be conducted with parents (ages 18+) to determine impact on families and individual participants. Swim skills will be tracked at each session via goal attainment scaling and daily documentation. Descriptive and correlational statistics will be completed as well as coding of interview and survey data. Participants can participate for one, 10 week session, or will have the option to participate in additional 10 week sessions until child participants top out on the WOTA or plateau in progress of swim skills.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 48
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Erika Kemp; Phone Number: 614-292-8167; Email: erika.kemp@osumc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43210
      • The Ohio State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 3 years to 12 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• pre-existing diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder from a medical professional
• family interest in swimming

Exclusion Criteria:

• ventilation system for breathing such as trachea not capped

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Aquatic Occupational Therapy; Group-based aquatic occupational therapy with 1:1 swim buddy for safety.	Behavioral: Aquatic Occupational Therapy; Group of 4-8 children, paired with a swim buddy. Intervention techniques including discrete teaching, motor shaping, behavioral management, therapeutic relationship and individualized goals.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in swim skills	Change in swim skills measured with Water Orientation Test-Alyn; higher scores mean a better outcome. Minimum score is 0, maximum is 27	baseline, pre-intervention; immediately after the intervention
Change in individualized goals	Goal Attainment Scaling to track change in other swim performance skills not measured above. Scores for each goal range from -2 (regression) to +2 (2 levels more than anticipated). A higher score indicates improvement.	immediately after the intervention
Change in parent comfort	Custom questionnaire using 5 point Likert scale regarding comfort and importance of water participation for the child. A higher score indicates increased parent comfort, which is the desirable direction.	baseline pre-intervention; immediately after the intervention
Parent perspective	qualitative interview regarding parent perspective of the the intervention	one time after 8 hours of intervention have been provided to the child participant

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ohio State University
• Collaborators: Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Erika Kemp, Ohio State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 14, 2021
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 16, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 12, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): October 25, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): April 30, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 29, 2024
• Last Verified: April 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2019J0204

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified data may be shared with other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No