Yoga for autistic Children

The purpose of the study was to find out the Influence of Yoga on flexibility among Autistic Children, for this purpose, fifty male autistic children were selected from YMCA College Special School and Pathway special school, Chennai, India. The subjects selected for the study did not undergo any special training or coaching programme other than the regular activities as per the curriculum. They were divided into two groups of twenty five each as hypo active group and hyper active group on the basis of medical report. They were at the age group of six to twelve years. The investigator had to depend upon the specialists who are qualified in handling the autistic children to choose the subjects and classify them into two groups. All the subjects of the hypo and hyperactive autistic children were tested on flexibility prior to and after thirty six weeks of experimental period as pre and post tests respectively by using standardized tests. The data collected from both the groups prior to and post experimentation were statistically analysed by using two way (2 x 2) factorial ANOVA with last factor repeated measures. The simple effect test was used as a follow up test. Since, only two groups and two testing conditions were compared, there was no need to apply the post hoc test to determine the paired mean differences. In all cases, the level of confidence was fixed at 0.05 for significance. The result of the study showed that the training program has resulted in a significant improvement in flexibility for hyper and hypo group, whereas, it resulted in a significant increase in flexibility among hyper and hypo active group.