Parents hail 'enormous' benefits of rugby training for autistic children

CHILDREN with autism should be encouraged to take part in sport, experts said yesterday after a study showed big improvements in youngsters with the condition who played rugby.

A project in Glasgow enrolled 27 children between the ages of seven and 16 to take part in six rugby training sessions.

The researchers found that more than half the youngsters saw improvements in their relationships and social skills.

They now hope more sports clubs will develop projects to help autistic children, who have problems communicating and are often described as living in their own world.

The training sessions were run by coaches at Glasgow's Cartha Queen's Park RFC.

Project leader Duncan Clark, director of NHS Lanarkshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, said several of the children who took part in the study were now playing in mainstream youth teams alongside others without autism.

"When we started the training we realised that the kids loved the competitive element, they loved playing the games and they seemed to have a lot of fun.

"As we went on we saw that their understanding of the game increased significantly.

"To start with some of the children were just going off and doing their own thing.

"But then they started to join in and take more of an interest in playing as part of a team."

The researchers found that interacting with other children in a training environment soon led to improvements off the pitch.

Assessments found that after the training course, 53 per cent of the children saw significant improvement in relationships with their peers.

The same percentage saw improvements in social behaviour and ability to communicate.

The parents of the children also said they saw the benefits the training had, with youngsters becoming more sociable and comfortable in their surroundings.

Mr Clark said: "The vast majority of children showed some improvement in their communication skills.

"It is by no means a cure, but there was a distinct improvement from the children most severely affected by autism to those further down the scale.

"Although this was a small group, the research is reliable enough to show that participation in team sport does benefit these children."

Mr Clark said they had already received interest from other clubs wanting to set up their own training programme.

A new project in Glasgow is set to start in March.

John McDonald, chief executive at the Scottish Society for Autism, welcomed the study.

"This is a way of getting autistic children interested in everyday life. Other children could benefit if this was tried out with other sports and in other clubs."

Charmaine Jolliffe, from Baillieston, took her son Andrew, 15, along to take part in the rugby training and said she was impressed by the scheme.

Andrew was diagnosed as autistic at the age of nine, after his parents became concerned about his inability to make eye contact with people.

"We have seen an improvement outside of the club. Anything that gets these children interested and interacting with people is important," she said.

Yvonne Daly's son Drew has seen his confidence boosted by his participation in the scheme. The 15-year-old now plays for the club's youth side.

"I want to carry on with the rugby as far as I can take it," he said.

Mrs Daly, from Mount Vernon, said the project had helped the youngsters enormously.

"These children need things like this. They don't have friends, usually because their schools are far away from where they live, and need to be able to interact.

"In the past Drew would shy away from mainstream children but now he is getting to know everyone and mixing well."