Aquatic Therapy

Water is an ideal environment for exercise and rehabilitation due to its constant temperature, density, buoyancy, pressure and resistance. It helps to reduce body weight, relax muscles and decrease stress. These properties have been shown to help those with ASD regulate their excitement and anxiety levels.
When engaging in specific well-directed water activities, improvements can be seen in the following domains:

• Motor function (including strength, coordination, balance and endurance)
• Sensory
• Emotion
• Cognition
• Communication
• Social
• Aquatic skills and water safety

• Improvement in posture, coordination and body control.
• Reduction and improvement of sensory issues.
• Improve cognitive functions.
• Improve social skills.
• Building up of impulse control and frustration tolerance.

Different therapeutic treatments can help children with autism. One of the most effective forms of therapy is aquatic therapy or hydrotherapy. This recreational therapy involves water use, and it plays an important role in enhancing the child’s quality of life and improving productivity.

Pediatric aqua therapy can help autistic children to improve their concentration and attention span. The therapy focuses on play-based functional movement, facilitating neurodevelopmental growth and improving range of motion. The therapy improves body awareness while also helping the children to have fun. The one-on-one session can help children with autism when it comes to impulse control, ability to follow instructions and frustration tolerance.

For children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Aquatic therapy entails benefits for the brain and learning, behavioural and psychological benefits and beneficial effects on joint position sense and muscle coordination.

An aquatic therapy session can be conducted as an individual or group therapy session. Group Therapy sessions are more beneficial for improving the behavioural Issues and social skills of the children. Before starting the session, a detailed assessment is undertaken. Building a rapport with the child on land before entering the alien water environment is essential.

The therapist will use various techniques during these sessions. One of the common concepts in Aquatic therapy is Hall wick Therapy, which uses a 10-point program to increase the water adaptability, breath control and movement of the body when immersed in water. The Bad Ragaz Ring method is essentially used for motor system deficits like muscle weakness, low tone and coordination. Ai chi (water tai chi) method uses various postures and movements in water, which provide active relaxation. Watsu is another technique used for passive relaxation while in water. Various aquatic exercises can be used for building aerobic endurance. Aquatic therapists will make use of all these techniques in combination for optimum results.

The time duration for the aquatic program is pre-determined. Ideally, an aquatic therapy program for ASD should be for about 2-6 months with a frequency of 1-3 times per week.