Download or read book Parent Perception of the Effect of Integrative Movement Therapy on Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder written by Juliana Bonilla and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine parent perspectives of the effect of Integrative Movement Therapy (IMT), a yoga-based therapy, on social interaction in school-age children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A survey was completed by seven parents of children ages 6-12 diagnosed with an ASD who participated in IMT for an average of once a week for at least three months. Data collection included demographic information, history of participation in IMT, social skills, and parent perceived outcomes. Four areas of social development were addressed including: (1) maintaining interactions, (2) responding to initiations, (3) initiating interaction, and (4) affective understanding/perspective taking. Parents retrospectively rated their child's social skills before and after participation in IMT. A two-tailed paired t-test for all social skills questions combined suggested that participation in IMT had a significant positive effect on social skills of the children in this study. Other areas of behavior reported to be affected by participation in IMT included increased ability to self-calm, increased body awareness, and ability to maintain appropriate personal space, and ability to modify self stimulating behavior. One must take into consideration the small sample size (n = 7) when attempting to generalize these findings to a larger population.