Topic: The Development of the Throwing Motor Skill in Autistic Children through Physical Education in the Saudia Arabian
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Abstract
Autistic children experience difficulties in social interaction due to their impaired social and communication abilities. The
autistic children need to be equipped with the social, communication, and motor skills they need to effectively interact with
their peers and others in their environment. Literature has demonstrated that developed motor skills are key to effective
communication and social interaction. An efficient and effective way of developing motor skills in mildly autistic children
is through physical education. It is against this background that the present study was designed to examine whether physical
education can be used to develop throwing motor skill in mildly autistic children. The study employed before-and-after design
in which pretest and posttest scores on softball throwing ability of six mildly autistic children selected through purposive
sampling from an autism centre in Saudi Arabia were obtained using the Texas Revision of Fait’s Basic Motor Skills Test:
Basic Movement Performance Profile. Each of the mildly autistic child’s ability to throw a softball was measured before the
beginning of training and after every two days during the six-day softball throwing modified physical education lessons. The
data are presented in tables, bar graphs, and pie charts. The results demonstrated that modified physical education very
significantly improves the ability of the mildly autistic children to throw a softball. The study underscores the importance
of using modified physical education to develop motor skills in mildly autistic children so as to enhance their social
interaction and communication abilities to give meaning to their everyday lives.