Using Posturography to Examine the Immediate Effects of Vestibular Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Feasibility Study.
OBJECTIVE
The primary objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of using posturography to monitor acute changes in postural control induced by a Sensory Integration (SI) therapy intervention. A secondary objective was to identify which posturography outcome parameters, tests conditions and data analysis methods might be most useful in identifying post-intervention changes.


METHODS
Five children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and five children with typical development (TD) participated in a 10 min vestibular swing activity and had their postural stability evaluated pre- and post-intervention under four different sensory testing conditions. Sway ranges, mean sway velocity, sway root mean square (RMS), and sample entropy were calculated from center of pressure (COP) data.


RESULTS
All five children with ASD demonstrated decreased mean sway velocity in the eyes open/flat plate condition post-intervention with an average decrease of 5.87 ± 2.69 mm/s. Four of the five children with ASD demonstrated an increase in RMS and a decrease in anterior/posterior sample entropy post-intervention in the eyes closed, foam pad condition and eyes open, flat plate condition respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Posturography may be useful for assessing acute physiologic responses to an SI therapy intervention and warrants further investigation.
a 1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Dayton , Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Senia
S
Smoot Reinert
b 2 Department of Physical Therapy, University of Dayton , Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Kurt
K
Jackson
a 1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Dayton , Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Kimberly
K
Bigelow
D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D019277:Entropy; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D009038:Motion; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000503:physiopathology*
Autism spectrum disorder; postural stability; posturography; sensory integration therapy; vestibular swing