AllPlay Dance autism: protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a community-based dance programme for children...

Motor skills are integral to numerous developmental domains throughout infancy and childhood. In autism, motor impairments are prevalent and pervasive, often appearing before core symptoms. These motor difficulties have a cascading effect on a child's broader physical and psychological health, including social, cognitive, emotional and behavioural functioning. Accordingly, researchers are increasingly interested in interventions that improve motor functioning, as these may have a downstream effect on broader developmental domains. One intervention that could address motor difficulties is the AllPlay Dance programme, which provides inclusive dance classes to children in community settings, with pilot data demonstrating acceptability and feasibility among parents and their children with autism and cerebral palsy. This pragmatic randomised controlled trial (pRCT) is thus designed to evaluate whether the AllPlay Dance programme creates the conditions for motor, cognitive and social abilities to thrive in children with autism.

This pRCT intends to enrol 70 families of children with autism, aged 7-12 years, living in Victoria, Australia. We will also enrol up to 60 participants with previous dance experience, called buddies, to support the participation of our dancers with autism. We will use our clinical, research, university and community networks to recruit participants. Interested families will complete an online screening survey, followed by questionnaires that parents complete and assessments of the motor functioning in the children. Interested buddies will also complete an online screening survey followed by a baseline questionnaire. Families will be randomly allocated to the intervention group or the treatment-as-usual waitlist control group. The intervention group will attend 9 weeks of community-based dance classes led by disability and dance experts and supported by buddies. The primary outcome is change in motor functioning, as assessed through performance-based measures, with parent reports providing complementary information about everyday motor functioning. Secondary outcomes include improvements in the executive, social, emotional and behavioural functioning of the children, as well as decreases in the stress of parents. We will also evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of this programme, as well as whether families decide to enrol and engage with other dance programmes in the community following the intervention.

The study has received approval from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee and the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee. Findings will be disseminated through a PhD thesis, peer-reviewed publications, presentations at scientific conferences and reports to participants, community organisations and the wider community.

Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR); ACTRN12625000600448; registered on 11 June 2025; https://anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=389672.