ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
This article is part of the Research TopicSensory Processing in Autism: Mechanisms, Impacts and InterventionsView all 8 articles
The Effect of Basketball Intervention on Executive Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Provisionally accepted
- 1Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China
- 2Harbin Sport University, Harbin, China
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Purpose:To investigate the effects of a basketball intervention on the development of executive functions in children with autism spectrum disorder. Methods:22 autistic children aged 6-12 years old in the elementary school section of the Wuhu Autism Association were randomly assigned into an experimental group (n=11) and a control group (n=11). The experimental group underwent basketball intervention training three times a week for 60 min each time for a total of 12 weeks, while the control group did not participate in any physical education course training, and only carried out usual daily routines. Inhibitory function, working memory and cognitive flexibility of the autistic children were tested before and after the trial. Results: After the basketball intervention, the experimental group showed significantly higher scores on the Stroop Color–Word Test, n-back task, and task-switching task were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.01), which demonstrated the enhanced level of the experimental group in the three aspects of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Conclusion: Basketball training may potentially enhance executive function in children with ASD. Further discussion and mechanism analysis are warranted in future studies.
Keywords: Basketball, children with autism, Executive Function, Intervention training, non-invasive treatment
Received: 07 Oct 2025; Accepted: 02 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Cai, Du and Chang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qifan Wu
wei-min Cai
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