How Aquatic Therapy is Helping Children with ASD
Durvesh Yadav 
How would you react if your healthy looking child was diagnosed with ASD? Like most parents, your world would come crashing down. The first question that will come to your mind is ‘Why only my child’.
According to a recent report, the world has witnessed a 178% rise in the ASD cases over the last 20 years. It is also estimated that in India, 1 out of every 100 children between the age of 1-10 years has autism. This data clearly shows that your child is not the only one.
ASD Treatments
You would be happy to know that with the advancement in research, there are effective treatment methods available today. These methods reduce the challenges associated with autism and enable children to perform everyday tasks with negligible help from others.
Some modern ASD treatment methods for children consist of play therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, aquatic therapy for autism, among multiple other therapies. Availability of multiple treatment methods often increases the dilemma of parents for selecting the best for their children.
Parents must remember that all the treatment methods are beneficial in distinctive ways and treatment centres provide each of these facilities in combination to treat children. However, aquatic therapy for autism has proven to be the most beneficial among children. Let’s dive deep to understand how aquatic therapy is helpful in autism.
Benefits of Aquatic Therapy for Autism
- Improved motor skill
Water-based activities are fun and motivate children for a high level of engagement. Participation in aquatic therapies offers exciting swimming exercises for children with ASD. These exercises improve their gross motor coordination by increasing endurance, balance, and muscular strength.
- Improved sensory input
Environmental distractions like noise, temperature, and other surrounding factors lead to detrimental effects on children with ASD. Aquatic therapy for autism identifies and solves these problems by providing a comfortable water temperature with reduced surrounding noise and distraction. The hydrostatic pressure provides a calming and soothing effect to the nerves, which improves the sensory input of children with ASD.
- Strengthen cognitive skills
Children with ASD have a high excitement level, which leads to low concentration. Personalised aquatic therapy programs that target play-based functional movement enhance neurodevelopmental growth and assist with impulse control, which improves the ability of children to follow a given instruction. According to a study conducted by NCBI, aquatic therapy on ASD children results in better concentration, increased mental awareness, and responsiveness.
- Improved social behaviour
Aquatic play sessions have proven beneficial for social interaction among children. During aquatic therapies, children learn about social competence in peer relations, co-operation, self-regulation, etc. That is necessary for living a healthy and fulfilling life when children grow up .
- Better communication skill
Most autistic children struggle immensely while expressing themselves with words. When they participate in aquatic programs, they get the opportunity to communicate with the therapist or other children present in the session. In addition to this, they also engage in activities like blowing bubbles in the water that strengthen their oral motor skills, which assist them with speech development.
Conclusion
Children with ASD are born with their special talent and they need to be accepted for who they are and what they are capable of becoming. Aquatic therapy is a medium of helping them realise their actual potential by improving their mental, physical, social, and emotional traits.
If your child is facing any developmental hurdle due to autism, you must consider contacting the best ASD therapy centres in Kolkata like Alexa Healthcare Centre. Well-experienced team of doctors at Alexa Healthcare Centre provides effective treatment under the careful supervision of Dr. Shipra Kumari PT, who has 7+ years of experience in providing effective and successful physiotherapy treatments to over 10,000 patients.
To know more: http://www.alexahealthcare.in
