The effect of photographic activity schedules on moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity in children with autism spectrum disorder
Picture cards let preschoolers with autism keep themselves active without adult prompts or prizes.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Becerra et al. (2021) asked if preschoolers with autism could run, jump, and play hard on their own. They gave three kids photo cards that showed each movement in order. The kids flipped the cards as they finished each action.
The team used a multiple-baseline design. They watched the children first, then handed out the picture schedules and kept measuring heart-pumping activity.
What they found
Every child quickly hit high levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity once the photo schedule arrived. The gains stayed high with no extra teaching or prizes.
In short, picture cards worked like a coach that never leaves the room.
How this fits with other research
Chandler et al. (1992) first showed that kids with autism can monitor their own social behavior. Becerra extends that idea from talking to moving.
Goldman et al. (2022) tried a token economy for the same goal—more exercise—but saw only small bumps. Photo schedules gave a bigger lift, hinting that self-cueing beats external prizes for this age group.
Rusch et al. (1981) taught parents to self-manage child behavior at home. Becerra flips the script: teach the child, not the parent, and the skill still spreads without adults.
Why it matters
You can hand a preschooler a ring-bound set of movement photos and walk away. The child stays active, and you free up staff for other tasks. Try it during recess, gym, or therapy breaks—no tokens, no tablets, just pictures.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) has been linked to improved bone health, muscular fitness, cognitive function, sleep, and a reduced risk of depression and obesity. Many children are not engaging in the recommended amount of physical activity. Furthermore, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were found to engage in less physical activity than their peers of typical development. We extended previous research by conducting a physical activity context assessment, which included a comparison of indoor to outdoor activities to evaluate which environment produced the lowest percent of MVPA as recorded by the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children. Given the utility of activity schedules to increase self-management and independent engagement during unstructured and low-preferred tasks, we then taught 3 preschool children diagnosed with ASD to use photographic activity schedules to increase the number of different activities that met the definition of MVPA in the 2 lowest-responding conditions of the physical activity context assessment. MVPA remained low during baseline sessions for all participants and immediately increased with the introduction of activity schedule teaching. All participants quickly met activity schedule teaching mastery criterion and demonstrated high levels of MVPA in generalization and maintenance probes without additional teaching.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2021 · doi:10.1002/jaba.796