2009/07/01 by Louisa M. T. Silva, Mark Schalock, Robert Ayres +2 · 2 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Alternative medicine #Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder #Autism #Autism Spectrum Disorder Research #Clinical psychology #Developmental psychology #Family and Disability Support Research #Intervention (counseling) #Massage #Medicine #Physical medicine and rehabilitation #Physical therapy #Psychiatry #Psychology #Randomized controlled trial #Sensory processing #Sensory system
paper · doi:10.5014/ajot.63.4.423
openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
Autism is commonly associated with sensory and self-regulatory disturbances. This article presents a randomized controlled study evaluating the effect of a 5-month intervention directed toward improving sensory impairment, digestion, and sleep in 46 children with autism < age 6. The intervention, Qigong Sensory Training (QST), is a qigong massage intervention based in Chinese medicine. It is two-pronged: Trainers work with children directly 20 times over 5 months, and parents give the massage daily to their children. Improvement was evaluated in two settings--preschool and home--by teachers (blind to group) and parents. Teacher evaluations showed that treated children had significant classroom improvement of social and language skills and reduction in autistic behavior compared with wait-list control participants. These findings were confirmed by parent data, indicating that the gains had generalized across contexts. A model and supporting data for understanding and treating sensory and self-regulation problems in autism is presented.