Balance rehabilitation for postural control in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A two-case report study

This study aimed to investigate the effect of balance rehabilitation on postural control in both low and increased cognitive load conditions in two children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Two children diagnosed with ASD participated in a 4-week personalized balance rehabilitation program with two sessions per week. We assessed postural control in two single task (ST) conditions with low cognitive load: Eyes Closed (EC), Eyes Open (EO); and in five increased cognitive load conditions. Those dual task (DT) conditions consisted of presenting images representing a neutral condition, sadness, anger, happiness, and fear. Postural control parameters (surface, velocity, medio-lateral and antero-posterior sway amplitudes of the center of pressure (CoP)) were collected by a posturographic platform before and after the balance rehabilitation.

The rehabilitation program resulted in a 30-96% improvement of postural control parameters in the ST condition for both participants. In DT, participant 1 progressed on all conditions while participant 2 progressed on 3 of the 5 conditions (sadness, anger and fear).

This suggests that these two children with ASD improved their balance control in both low and increased cognitive load conditions. These encouraging results need to be replicated before recommending balance rehabilitation as standard health rehabilitation in children with ASD.