Journal of Chemical, Biological and Physical Sciences

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1 JCBPS; Section B; May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; E- ISSN: [DOI: /jcbps.B ] Journal of Chemical, Biological and Physical Sciences An International Peer Review E-3 Journal of Sciences Available online at Section B: Biological Sciences CODEN (USA): JCBPAT Research Article The Effect of dolphin therapy on running speed and agility and bilateral coordination motor skills of eight year-old children with autism spectrum disorder Mohammadreza Ashtari 1 and Mahmud Sheikh 2 1 Department of motor behavior, Faculty of physical education and sport science, Tehran University, Kish, Iran 2 Department of motor behavior, Faculty of physical education and sport science, Tehran University, Kish, Iran Received: 21 June 2017: Revised: 07 July 2017: Accepted: 24 July 2017 Abstract: Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, a variable developmental disorder that appears by age three. One of the most impairment of autism spectrum disorder is motor weakness. Several therapeutic methods have been proposed for improvement of motor skills for autistic children s, which dolphin assisted therapy is the most prominent. The current research investigated the effect of dolphin assisted therapy on fine motor skills of eight-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder. The 10 participants were randomly divided into an experimental (n=5) and a control (n=5) group. All participants completed the Bruninisky-Oseretsky test at the beginning of the experiment as a pre-test and took part in the SPARK program including of 16 training sessions. The experimental group touched, played, swam with dolphins while control group spent equal amount of training in water without dolphins after participation in the SPARK program. All participants took the Bruninisky-Oseretsky test as a post-test at the end of the experiment. There were no significant differences for running speed and agility and bilateral coordination factors (P 0.05). The no significant differences for running speed and 889 J. Chem. Bio. Phy. Sci. Sec. B, May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; , [DOI: /jcbsc.B ]

2 agility and bilateral coordination confirm that dolphin therapy did not improve running speed and agility and bilateral coordination of children with autism spectrum disorder. Keywords: Autism, dolphin therapy, running speed and agility, bilateral coordination, animal assisted therapy, motor impairment. INTRODUCTION Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication 1,2, gross and fine motor deficits 2-4 and weakness in motor learning 5,6, as well as by unique strengths and differences. Motor weakness is one of the most important challenges for children with autism spectrum disorders. The weakness, according to neurophysiological science is based on abnormalities in cerebellum 7, basal ganglia 8, poor sensory input 9 and poor multi-sensory integration 10. Various therapeutic methods have been introduced to improve ASD; one of the most prominent methods is animal assisted therapy (AAT); dolphins recently have been raised for therapy issues The dolphin therapy turns to John Lilly's 14 study; he started to study and research about dolphins' interaction with children who suffered with neurological disorders 14 and the first pilot study was applied in 1978 and 1979 in United of Florida 15. The beneficial effects of dolphin therapy were explained by learning and attachment theories. Each kind of activity was followed by pleasant outcome will be self-reinforcing and it is possible to occur in the future, this is the means of learning theory 16. Attachment Theory was introduced by an English psychologist John Bowlby, throughout this theory attachment refers to regulatory system and it supposed that this system exist inside the person and its aim is control of behaviors that led to be closed and touched a distinctive and supportive person or other species that called support 17. In dolphin therapy, dolphins are incentive, reinforce and supporter to facilitate the relationship between therapist and patient, and cause to patient do special behaviors. Dolphin therapy and its influence in neurological, behavioral, psychological, emotional and motor skills have been studied in a relatively low number of studies 14, 15, 18, 19. Nathanson 15 claimed that dolphin therapy significantly increases motivation, attention, speech skills and fine and gross motor skills of children with severe disabilities 15. Salgueiro et al. 19 carried out an exploratory research as the effect of a dolphin interaction program on children with autism spectrum disorders; the participants were 10 children (8 boys and 2 girls) with autism spectrum disorders with the average age of nine years and six months. They applied CARS assessment Protocol which includes Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Psycho-Educational Profile Revised (PEP-R), Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), Theory of Mind Tasks, and Interaction Evaluation Grid (IEG) for assessment of children. The results from ATEC, Theory of Mind Tasks, and CARS showed that, interaction with dolphins does not have any advantages. The PEP-R showed significant statistical effects on the total progress, fine motor skills, cognitive function, and verbal cognitive development 19. According to Samadie's 20 reportage, there are 26.6 out of children with autism spectrum disorder in Iran. One of the major problems of people with autism spectrum disorder is their motor difficulties, so that they experience lots of motor limitations, weakness and delayed in fine and gross motor skills relative 890 J. Chem. Bio. Phy. Sci. Sec. B, May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; , [DOI: /jcbsc.B ]

3 to their age; According to these limitation, the present study, based on the potential benefits of unknown capacities of nature in various medical and treatment cases like saving costs, lack of side effects, willingness of patient for cooperation and because of deficit in literature review, the focus of present study is investigating the effect of dolphin therapy on running speed and agility and bilateral coordination motor skills of eight year-old children with autism spectrum disorder. MATERIAL AND METHODS Participants: Ten children with ASD, registered in September 2013 at the special needs school in Kish Island (a small island in south of Iran) with the average age 8.32± 0.46 and whose families agreed to participate in dolphin therapy program at the Dolphin Park in Kish Island. The participant randomly divided into experimental (5 boys) and control groups (5 boys). The CARS test, which standardized in Iran is composed 15 items were used for assessment of ASD 21. Research Tools and Task: Motor proficiency Bruninisky-Oseretsky test were used for assessment of fine motor skills of 4.5 to 14 year old children. This test is composed of 8 subtests. The reliability and validity value of Bruninisky-Oseretsky test were 0.87 and 0.89 in order. Scoring was on the base of some particular and standard tests, every participant repeated them twice and examiner recorded the highest point of two trials 22. According to the aim of research, researchers applied all Bruniniksy-Oseretsky subtests; such as: running speed and agility and bilateral coordination 22. Procedure: Ethical approval for this research project was obtained from research director of Kish international campus of Tehran University, the department of education Kish and the Dolphin Park administration. Before interaction period, the personal information questioner, which included the general information, history of disease and child medical records and question about whether the child has had any interaction with dolphins or not, were completed. In order to diagnose of ASD Gilliam Autism Rating Scale test (GARS) was applied to all participants by a children s exceptional expert. After diagnosis of ASD, the participants participated in Bruninisky-Oseretsky test as pre- test and the results were recorded. Then, the participants in both experimental and control groups joined a SPARK motor program that contains pleasure movement along with play and fun for 16 sessions. Experimental group applied SPARK motor program and experienced interaction swim and play with dolphins along with researchers and dolphins' private coach; while at the same time, the control group also was playing and doing activities in shallow water along with researchers and clerks. At the end of 16th session the Bruninisky-Oseretsky test were applied as post-test and the results recorded. In the end of training sessions the results were analyzed. Statistical Method: For consideration normal distribution of data, Shapiro-Wilk test was used. The scores of pre-test and post-test of both groups were analyzed by analysis of Covariance in Mancova text. Data analysis was carried out with SPSS (v.20, SPSS Inc) and statistically significant levels were assumed for p J. Chem. Bio. Phy. Sci. Sec. B, May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; , [DOI: /jcbsc.B ]

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1: Descriptive statistics for fine motor skills Groups Variables Pre-test Post-test M SD M SD running speed and agility Experimental bilateral coordination Control running speed and agility bilateral coordination Data are presented as the means and SD CONCLUSION According to statistical analysis of data (table 1), the interaction program with dolphins showed no significant differences between experimental and control groups in post-test of running speed and agility and bilateral coordination factors. Although a number of researches indicated contradictory outcomes about the effects of complementary treatments particularly physical activities, playing, water training, swimming and interaction with dolphin over different aspects, such as; behavioral, cognitive and psychological of individuals with special requirements 15, 19, 23, 24, the effect of dolphin therapy on motor aspects, particularly motor skills was a sort of ambiguity and it sounds necessary to investigate a lot more about the presented research; Therefore, according to this vacuum, the purpose of the research was to investigate the effect of dolphin therapy on running speed and agility and bilateral coordination motor skills of eight year-old children with autism spectrum disorder in Kish island. According to the results of this research, dolphin therapy and interaction with dolphins don t have improved running speed and agility and bilateral coordination motor skills in children with ASD. The results of current research are consistent with Salgueiro et al. 19, Makenzie et al. 28 and Hodg et al. 29 ; According to the results of mentioned researches, Dolphin Therapy and interaction with dolphins don t improve motor skills in children with special requirements researches; while, the results is inconsistent with the results of Nathanson 15,23,24, Lukina 18 Perhaps one of the reasons was the applied test, this research used Bruninisky- Oseresky test for assessment of running speed and agility and bilateral coordination motor skills; while, Nathanson and Lukina used another test. Furthermore, the other reason could be the number of interaction with dolphin s sessions; the present study used 16 session intraction with Dolphins, while, Nathanson and Lukina used a long period of time included 2 and 6 months for study. Finally, according to the present research and few studies that has been done in this regard; it could be conclude that dolphin therapy can t improve running speed and agility and bilateral coordination motor skills of eight year-old children with autism spectrum disorder; therefore, we suggested to therapists, physicians, coaches and trainers of exceptional children to remedy some problems of this developing community through continuation of such investigations with different age groups, other sort of disorders, other aspects and applying other unknown natural potentials. 892 J. Chem. Bio. Phy. Sci. Sec. B, May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; , [DOI: /jcbsc.B ]

5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study was financially supported by the board of Dolphin Park and the department of education in Kish Island, Iran. At the department of education Kish, Mr. Ehsan Haghi the manager of department and Mrs Azita Siami and Simin Rezaee the teachers of the special needs school provided constant support and encouragement. We tanks especially Mr Mehrdad Radfar and Mr Milad Ghadami the Dolphins trainer and Mr Reisi the manager of research board at Dolphin Park. We tank all children who participated in the program; we are so grateful to these children and their family. We are also grateful to Doctor Ruholah Nekuei for editing the manuscript. REFERENCES 1. M. R. Ashtari. The effect of self-controlled feedback on learning of a throwing task in 10 years old children with autism spectrum disorder in Hamadan city. Motor Behavior; 2014, 7(19), E. M. Jansiewics, M. C. Goldberg, C. J. Newschaffer, M. B. Denckla, R. Landa, and S. H. Mostofsky. Motor signs distinguish children with high functioning autism and Asperger s syndrome from controls. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders; 2006, 36, N. J. Rinehart, B. J. Tonge, J. L. Bradshaw, R. Iansek, P. G. Enticott, J. McGinley. Gait function in high functioning autism and Aspergers disorder: Evidence for basal-ganglia and cerebellar involvement? European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; 2006, 15, D. L. Williams, G. Goldstein, N.J. Minshew. Neuro-psychologic functioning in children with autism: further evidence for disordered complex information-processing. Child Neuropsychology; 2006, 12, C. M. Freitag, C. Kleser, M. Schneider, A. Von Gontard. Quantitative assessment of neuromotor functions in adolescents with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders; 2007, 37, C. C. Haswell, I. Izawa, L. R. Dowell, S. H. Mostofsky, R. Shadmehr. Representation of internal models of action in the autistic brain. Nature neuroscience; 2009, 12, A. M. D Cruz, M. W. Mosconi, S. Steele, L. H. Rubin, B. Luna, N. Minshew. Lateralized response timing deficits in autism. Biological Psychiatry; 2009, 66, S. H. Fatemi, K. A. Aldinger, P. Ashwood, M. L. Bauman, C. D. Blaha, G. J. Blatt. Consensus paper: pathological role of the cerebellum in autism. Cerebellum; 2012, 11, K. A. Fournier, C. J. Hass, S. K. Naik, N. Lodha, J. H. Cauraugh. Motor coordination in autism spectrum disorders: a synthesis and meta-analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders; 2010, 40, E. Gowen, A. Hamilton. Motor abilities in autism: a review using a computational context. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders; 2013, 43, A. C. Israel, R. Wicks-Nelson. Behavior disorders of childhood. Prentice Hall PTR; 1983, 499(22), G. F. Blue. The value of pets in children s life. Childhood Education; 1986, 63(1), B. M. Levinson. Human/companion animal therapy. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy; 1984, 14(2), J. C. Lilly. Mental Effects of Reduction of Ordinary Levels of Physical Stimuli on Intact, Healthy Persons. Psychiatric Research Reports; 1956, 5 (1), J. Chem. Bio. Phy. Sci. Sec. B, May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; , [DOI: /jcbsc.B ]

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7 895 J. Chem. Bio. Phy. Sci. Sec. B, May 2017 July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3; , [DOI: /jcbsc.B ]