EFFECT OF SCHOOL-BASED YOGA PRACTICE ON THE ATTENTION BEHAVIORS OF ADOLESCENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
Complementary therapies, such as yoga, have been shown to be effective in intervening on the core symptoms of ASD and on the symptoms associated to concomitant disorder. The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of yoga on the attention behaviors of adolescents with ASD. First, twelve students attending a high school in Montreal completed a questionnaire to assess their attention behaviors problems, then they participated to yoga sessions at school. In addition, the frequency of attention behaviors to a task completed in class was reported before and after each yoga session. The results show a significant increase in the frequency of adolescent attention behaviors after participating in a yoga session. This exploratory research suggests that the practice of yoga can be an intervention to be used to increase the concentration of students in class.