Everyone knows that exercise is important for good health. When you exercise regularly, you help your physical body - your muscles, heart and lungs - stay healthy and strong.

Not only physically, but also mentally, exercise has positive effects. During physical exertion, your brain produces endorphins, which help against stress and depression. In general, you just feel better when you are active!

For children with autism, physical activity can be especially important because, like sensory therapy , it can actually help improve their autistic symptoms. And since children with autism often spend more time playing video games and watching television than their peers, it’s important to make sure they’re active!

How Physical Activity Helps Autistic Symptoms

A meta-analysis that looked at 16 different studies found “clear benefits of physical exercise on patients’ motor and social functions.” Specifically, they saw a 35% improvement in autism spectrum (ASD) symptoms as a result of exercise. They noted that this was not because the physical activity exhausted the children, as their on-task behavior, academic response, and appropriate motor behavior actually increased after the exercise. While there are many things you can do to help your child’s autistic symptoms, exercise appears to be an important and relatively simple way to see positive results!

What are good physical exercises for autism?

What is interesting to consider is that individual exercise programs appear to have a greater impact than group programs.

Individual exercises or in a group?

A study showed that children's social skills actually improved more in an individual program, which involved just the child and an adult leader, compared to participating in a group. This does not mean that group exercises are not useful. The study simply showed that individual programs had more benefits for the children.

Individual exercises for autistic children

Children with autism often experience challenges in sensory processing, motor skills and body awareness. Individual exercises can contribute to their development.

These exercises range from trampoline jumping, swinging and balancing on a ball to using sensory stimulation materials. By working with a specialist, these exercises can be adapted to the child's needs and interests.

A useful tool in this process is the bodysock , a stretchy fabric bag that provides deep pressure and compression. It calms the nervous system, promotes body awareness, and stimulates sensory processing. These individual exercises, combined with appropriate tools such as the bodysock , can provide significant benefits to the development and well-being of autistic children.

Intense or gentle exercise?

Another aspect that studies have looked at is whether the exercises should be intense or mild. It turns out that mild exercises did not show much improvement in autistic behavior in children, but intense exercises actually had a positive effect. The first study on mild versus intense exercise looked at the difference between 15 minutes of playing with a ball (mild) and 15 minutes of jogging (intense). It turned out that the mild exercise had no effect, while the intense exercise showed a reduction in stereotypical autistic behavior.

Regular physical exercises or digital physical exercises?

If physical exercise like jogging and playing sports isn’t your child’s favorite activity, there’s “movement games,” which involve doing exercises through video games. A new study has shown that it improves sensory and cognitive attention in autistic children.

Fitness program for autism

So it turns out that jogging can be one of the best and easiest options for your child. Of course, if your child doesn’t like jogging, you should let him try other things. Ultimately, the best exercise is the one that your child loves and sticks with. It could be chasing a soccer ball, doing jumping jacks, or even jumping on a trampoline.

In short

If your child has autism, exercise has been shown to be beneficial. Make sure you get your child off the couch and into some form of vigorous exercise. If you are consistent, you will see big improvements in behavior! Want to read more? Check out our other blogs on autism or ADHD .