Background: Participation in physical activity among adolescents with autism is often conditional. However, there is a lack of methods for identifying these specific conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and investigate the feasibility of a Q-sort tool to map individual-specific conditions for participation in physical activity among adolescents with autism and to identify different viewpoints regarding conditions for such participation. Method: An exploratory mixed-methods design was employed to investigate the feasibility of using Q methodology and the Q-sort procedure to identify what individual-specific conditions are important for participation in physical activity for adolescents with autism. Results: The adolescents ranked the statements with varying levels of ease. Two viewpoints were identified: Autonomous participation without surprises and Enjoyment of activity in a safe social context. Conclusion: Q-sort is a feasible method for mapping conditions for participation, which can guide the development of tailored physical activity interventions.

Purpose

Various stakeholders contribute to the development of healthy physical activity habits in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents and stakeholders seek collaborative actions but little is still known about such efforts. The purpose of this study was thus to explore how professionals from different services experience stakeholder collaboration when promoting participation in physical activity for these adolescents.

Method

Five focus group discussions were held with 17 professionals from education, health care, community, and sports organizations, engaged in the promotion of physical activity in adolescents with ASD. The data were analyzed with qualitative content analysis.

Results

The discussions revolved around a central theme: Collaboration is needed to promote physical literacy among adolescents with ASD. The professionals though experienced that this collaboration was hampered by the low priority given to physical activity issues within different organizations, by limited resources, lack of knowledge, and unclear roles.

Conclusions

Notwithstanding the professionals? different roles, all agreed that physical activity issues need to be prioritized and that each stakeholder needs to acknowledge the shared responsibility of collaboration. However, more clear routines for collaboration that include joined efforts but also highlight the organization-specific responsibilities might enhance the collaborative efforts.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONI

n-depth understanding of both the adolescents? needs and the environments in which physical activity is promoted is required if participation in physical activity among adolescents with ASD is to be enhanced.Families and professionals within different organizations need to be supported to collaborate when mapping and meeting the adolescents? physical activity needs. Issues regarding developing physical activity habits need to be prioritized.Professionals, such as education, health, and community professionals who are important for the promotion of healthy physical activity habits need to be included in multi-stakeholder meetings.

In this systematic review, we present results of how teachers can create better conditions for students, with or without disabilities affecting social interaction, who meet challenges with social interactions. We aim to answer the research question: How can teaching physical education be designed so that students who experience difficulties with social interaction are provided with good conditions for participation, development, and learning? Quantitative and qualitative studies published between 2000 and 2019 were included in the search. Of 8079 studies, 11 studies fulfilled the Swedish Institute for Educational Research and the National Agency’s relevance and quality assessment checklist. The studies included interviews, observations, interventions, or surveys. The students were from first year in primary school up to last year in high school. The results were divided into three themes of importance for improving the learning environment in physical education 1) the importance of trusting relationships, 2) providing structure and support 3) creating a positive learning climate. The first theme describes the importance of relationships. Student experienced that teachers who acknowledge all students' experiences and were attentive to their opinions could strengthen the relationships. When the solidarity between students in the classroom was strong, students felt they were part of the group, which contributed to the learning environment. The second theme describes the importance of providing structure in the form of good and clear planning, explanations, and varied opportunities for students to perform a task. Students requested increased predictability of the lesson provided them with a feeling of control. The third theme emphasises the importance of increasing students’ self-efficacy e.g., students experiences of competence and their belief in their ability for a more stimulating learning environment. The results indicates that creating an atmosphere that is not too performance oriented is eligible. When physical education becomes a learning opportunity rather than a measurement, it contribute to increased participation. A specific teaching method, autonomy-supported teaching, was emphasized in some of the studies to have social-relational benefits. This type of teaching includes attentive listening, taking students’ perspective, creating opportunities to give feedback on teaching and providing enough time to complete different tasks. Ensuring a learning environment for all students in physical education, regardless of ability, experience, and knowledge, is not a responsibility for teachers alone, it concerns and involves all levels in the school organization. The management, principals, legal guardians, teachers, and students need to work together. 

The parents of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder have a vital and proactive role in encouraging healthy physical activity habits, and they possess important knowledge about the adolescents’ needs when it comes to enhancing participation in physical activity. But promoting healthy physical activity habits in adolescents can be difficult. The purpose of this study was thus to describe parents’ perceptions of their adolescent child’s participation in physical activity and to describe the parental role in promoting such participation. Twenty-eight parents of adolescents aged 12–16 years with autism spectrum disorder were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. The parents described how challenging participation in physical activities could be for their adolescents. Despite this, they wanted to see their children participate more in physical activity but found the promotion of physical activity to be an overwhelming task that was difficult to cope with on their own. The results reveal a need for support and collaborative efforts among different actors to give these issues increased priority in order to promote the adolescents’ physical activity participation.

Hur kan föreningsidrotten passa alla oavsett förutsättningar? Forskning visar att föreningar måste bli bättre på att anpassa ordinarie aktiviteter, snarare än att skilja grupper åt. En jämlik idrottsrörelse kräver en mångfald av aktiviteter - alla vinner på att all organiserad idrott inte ser likadan ut.

Movement and physical activity is one of the largest public health challenges of our time. A setting that is particularly suitable for promoting physical activity is sports clubs, which are the main setting for leisure time activities in many countries. Sports club activities have the apparent potential to promote health in a comprehensive way and to contribute to overall physical activity levels, psychosocial health as well as healthy behaviors. From an equality perspective, it is therefore worrisome that young people with disabilities participate to lesser extent than other adolescents. Research in this field have mostly focused on consequences and barriers for young people who not participate in sports. Strategies for participation and especially from an equality perspective have been studied less. This study aims to explore how young people with disabilities are involved in sports clubs and how this can be understood within a framework of equality. Methods: this empirical study from Sweden builds on four focus groups including up to five participants from regional sports federations and sports clubs in two Swedish regions. The interviews are analyzed with conceptual pairs such as equality/equity, equality/inequality, inclusion/integration, adapt sport/adapt child and prerequisites/barriers for equality. Results: results are presented about how equality is regarded concerning this target group as well as prerequisites and barriers for equality. Conclusions: it can be concluded that even though young people with disabilities hardly is a homogenous group some overall conclusions can be drawn. A solution is to go from adapting sport for disabled persons to adapting sport for all people. Sports have to be adapted to the participants, not the other way around. Equality in sport implies diversity. Diverse sport, organized differently will lead to more people doing sports for longer in life, which will benefit everyone, both individually and at the societal level. Funding: the study is funded by the Swedish research council for sport science.

Adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are less physically active compared to typically developing peers. The reasons for not being physically active are complex and depend on several factors, which have not been comprehensively described from the adolescent’s perspective. Therefore, the aim was to describe how adolescents with an ASD perceive, experience and reflect on their participation in physical activity. Interviews with 24 adolescents diagnosed with high-functioning ASD, aged 12–16 years, were analysed with qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. They expressed a variety of reasons determining their willingness to participate, which were conceptualized as: Conditional participation in physical activities. The present study presents an alternative perspective on participation in physical activity, with impact on intervention design.

Young people with disabilities participate to a lower extent in organized sport than their peers without disabilities. Research in this matter has previously focused on the complex barriers that restrict participation in sports clubs, rather then what can facilitate participation and inclusive activities. There is a need to study real examples of how sports clubs can include children and youth with disabilities in the sport program. An overview of inclusion in organized sports regarding children and adolescents with disabilities is lacking today. Therefor the aim of this study is to increase the understanding of how sports clubs include children and adolescents with disabilities in their activities. The results of this systematic search on documented inclusive physical activities within sport clubs shows that are few peer-reviewed studies that describe how (i) children and young people with disabilities are included in sports clubs’ regular, ongoing activities. The sports clubs rather worked with short term intervention-based activities in team-sports settings (what ii). The main documented reasons for sport clubs to inclusion in organized sport (why iii) were to increase the participation of youth with disabilities and to promote social contact between children with and without disabilities. The lack of documentation and the limited collective knowledge-based is discussed as a problem while implementing a successful inclusive approach on adapted physical activity in organized sport settings for all people longer time in life.