QIGONG MASSAGE TREATMENT FOR SENSORY AND SELF-REGULATION PROBLEMS IN YOUNG CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED

Autism is commonly associated with disturbances of the sensory nervous system, digestion and sleep. This manuscript presents a randomized controlled study evaluating the effect of a five-month intervention directed towards improving measures of sensory impairment, digestion and sleep in 46 children with autism under six years of age. The intervention, Qigong Sensory Training (QST) is a qigong massage intervention based in Chinese Medicine. It is two-pronged, with trainers working with children directly 20 times over the five months, and parents giving the daily massage protocol to their children. Improvement was evaluated in two settings: the pre-school and home, by teachers (blind to group) and parents. Teacher evaluations showed that children receiving the QST intervention had significant classroom improvement of social/language skills, and reduction in autistic behavior compared to wait-list controls. Parent data confirmed the findings in the teacher data, indicating that the gains had generalized across contexts. A model for understanding and treating sensory and self-regulation problems in autism is advanced, outcomes data supporting the model are presented, and the limitations of th