Organized sports‐based interventions and motor outcomes in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience difficulties with motor skills such as balance, coordination, running, jumping, and ball skills. These challenges can affect participation in sports, play, school activities, and daily life. This systematic review examined whether organized sports-based interventions can help improve motor outcomes in children with ASD. We reviewed 11 studies involving interventions such as martial arts, aquatic training, gymnastics/trampoline programs, table tennis, and Australian rules football. Overall, organized sports-based interventions showed promising improvements in several motor domains, particularly balance, locomotor skills, object control skills, and total motor skills. Martial arts interventions, especially Tai Chi Chuan and Kata-based programs, demonstrated the most consistent and large effects on balance and total motor skills. Aquatic training programs also showed large improvements in balance, locomotor skills, and object control skills. Gymnastics and trampoline interventions improved balance and bilateral coordination, while other sports such as table tennis produced broad gross motor improvements and Australian rules football demonstrated a large effect specifically for object control skills. Across all intervention categories, balance was the most consistently improved motor skill. These findings suggest that structured sports participation may provide children with ASD opportunities to build motor skills in enjoyable, socially engaging, and meaningful environments. However, the overall confidence in these findings is limited because many studies involved small numbers of children and had limitations in how they were designed and conducted. More well-designed research is needed to understand which sports are most beneficial—and how often and for how long.