Getting active with autism

Experts say kids with the disability benefit from sports

The members of the swim team at Bloomington High School South in central Indiana cheer wildly every time Nathan Buffie races. In his two years on the team, Nathan has never won first place at a meet. Often, he finishes far behind.

But it is the fact that Nathan even goes into the water and manages to compete at all that his teammates find so remarkable. Nathan, a trim 16-year-old with a boyish smile, has autism, the devastating developmental disorder that makes his participation in any sport or social activity a struggle.

"He is probably the worst swimmer on the team, but he keeps getting better and he wants to win," said his mother, Penny Githens. "He tells his teammates this, and they just get so excited for him."

For years, children with autism were left on the sidelines, a consequence of a widespread belief that they were incapable of participation in athletics. But while it is true that autistic children can be difficult to motivate and resistant to exercise, they are now being pushed to take part in physical education programs, encouraged by experts who say that certain sports can ease repetitive behaviors such as pacing and head-banging as well as provide a social outlet.

Autistic children, even those who are considered low functioning, can excel at activities such as swimming, martial arts, running and surfing -- sports that don't entail having to read social cues or figuring out when to pass the ball.

"A lot of autistic children are never going to play on a team, but they can do really well in individual sports," said Donna Asher, the camp director at the North East Westchester Special Recreation Program in Hawthorne, N.Y. "It's not their physical skills that keep them from participating, it's their social skills -- not being able to interact with others or having a breakdown on the field in the middle of a game."

Athletic programs for autistic children, often called adapted sports programs, are designed to sidestep social and behavioral problems.

Many autistic children -- up to half, according to some studies -- are prescribed antipsychotics and other drugs that can produce fatigue and swift weight gain. Studies show that about 17 percent of autistic children are overweight and 35 percent more are at risk, figures that mirror the rate among American children in general.

Experts hope that teaching autistic children how to be active will stave off problems later in life. "What we're trying to do is to make sure that they won't be at high risk for obesity and coronary artery disease," said Dawn D. Sandt, an assistant professor of adapted physical education at the University of New Mexico who has studied the activity levels and the body mass of autistic children.

Not a high priority

Still, for parents of autistic children, locating an adapted sports program can be a low priority. More often than not, they are consumed with struggles to find speech therapists, behavioral intervention services, special education classes and a health insurance policy that will pay for it all.

"Parents of autistic kids have a lot of battles to fight," said Georgia Frey, an associate professor of kinesiology at Indiana University-Bloomington, who founded an adapted physical education program in 2001. "So when it comes to getting their kids involved in recreation and physical activity, it can seem too exhausting. But I do think that parents see the value in these programs, because the demand for them is very high."

Researchers say the value of sports for autistic children is well documented but often overlooked. Studies dating to the 1980s have found that brisk physical activity increases attention span and reduces repetitive behaviors.