Using Progressive Muscle Relaxation to Increase Academic Engagement for Elementary School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
A five-minute video-guided muscle-relaxation break lifts on-task behavior for elementary students with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three elementary students with autism watched a five-minute video. The video showed kids tightening and relaxing muscles while seated at a desk.
Teachers played the clip right before math time. They wanted to see if the short routine would help the students stay on task.
What they found
After the video, all three kids looked at their worksheets longer. They also started tasks faster and asked fewer off-topic questions.
The teacher said the break was easy to use. The students said it felt good.
How this fits with other research
Lin et al. (2018) also used self-management with young autistic kids, but parents ran the program at home. McCook moves the same idea into the classroom and lets a video do the coaching.
Hendrix et al. (2022) reviewed parent-mediated studies and found most skip emotion regulation. McCook fills that gap by showing a quick, child-led way to calm before work.
Cengher et al. (2020) tweaked antecedents to boost learning. McCook uses the same logic: change what happens right before work and you get better engagement.
Why it matters
You can add this five-minute clip to any lesson. No extra staff, no mats, no fuss. Try it before tough subjects like math or writing. Track on-task minutes and see if the relaxation break buys you calmer, more focused students.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly struggle with self-regulation skills, which can lead to less social inclusion, difficulties with peer and teacher interactions, low academic performance and high levels of challenging behaviors. Alternatively, when students are equipped with strong self-regulatory capabilities, their social development and academic performance is enhanced, leading to improved well-being, increased attention in the classroom, and lower levels of challenging behaviors. Research suggests that the use of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) may show promising results in improving observable behaviors such as academic engagement and challenging behaviors in the classroom. However, much of the current literature focuses on the positive effects of PMR solely when targeting private events, such as anxiety, executive functioning, and autonomic arousal. The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary examination to explore the effects of brief video-based PMR to increase academic engagement in the classroom with three elementary school students diagnosed with ASD. Using visual and statistical analyses, the results from this study showed that PMR showed promising increases in academic engagement across all three participants. Social validity ratings indicated that the teacher and participants were satisfied with the intervention and rated PMR as a feasible and acceptable behavior-management strategy in the classroom. While social validity outcomes were positive, they were limited as they consisted of short Likert-type scale questions completed by one single teacher and three students. Given the small sample size of this exploratory study, future studies should incorporate additional participants and evaluate the long-term impacts of PMR for improving engagement and academic outcomes for students with ASD.
Behavioral Sciences, 2025 · doi:10.3390/bs15111516