Effect of Implicit Learning Methods With the External Focus of Attention on Bowling Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Control Trial Study.
Use analogy cues with an outside focus to teach sports; autistic kids learn more skills with fewer lessons.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Khodayari et al. (2024) split autistic kids into two groups. One group learned bowling with errorless hints. The other group learned with analogies and an outside focus. Both groups bowled and threw underhand for weeks. Coaches watched scores and form.
What they found
The analogy kids got better at bowling AND throwing. The errorless kids only improved at bowling. External-focus analogies gave broader sport skills.
How this fits with other research
Zheng (2024) reviewed many studies and says implicit tricks like analogies help autistic kids move better. That review includes our bowling trial.
Pane et al. (2022) also ran a head-to-head test. They showed picking play targets by skill level, not age, works best. Our bowling study mirrors that idea: match the style to the child, not the calendar.
Bacon et al. (1998) looks opposite at first. They found naturalistic speech lessons beat analog lessons for real talk. We found analog lessons beat errorless for real throws. The twist is the goal: L wanted daily talking; we wanted sport skills. Same method, different aims, both win.
Why it matters
Next time you teach a motor skill, try a quick picture cue or story instead of step-by-step prompts. Say “roll the ball down the sleepy snake” rather than “bend elbow, release at knee.” One simple switch can spread gains across tasks and save you extra lessons.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick one ball game. Replace verbal steps with a kid-friendly image or story cue and track two skills, not one.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of the current study was to compare implicit learning methods with an emphasis on the external focus of attention on bowling skill in autistic children. Twenty children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were selected. After the participants were randomly divided into two groups, the pretest was performed, evaluating the participants both quantitatively (score of bowling pins falling) and qualitatively (TGMD3 subscale test of underhand ball throwing). Group A was trained using the errorless learning method with the external focus of attention, while Group B was trained using the analogical learning method with the external focus of attention. The results showed that analogical learning with the external focus of attention has significant effects (p ≤ 0.05) on both bowling and underhand ball‐throwing skills in autistic children. Errorless learning with external focus of attention, on the other hand, had a significant effect (p ≤ 0.05) on the bowling skill. The results of the research showed that analogical learning with an external focus of attention can be effective in developing both bowling skill and underhand ball‐throwing skill in children with ASD; however, errorless learning with an external focus of attention was useful in developing bowling skill and failed to show a significant effect on enhancing the underhand ball‐throwing skill in children diagnosed with ASD. IRCT20220920056007N1.
Brain and Behavior, 2024 · doi:10.1002/brb3.70139