Effect of whole body vibration on stereotypy of young children with autism

Abstract

The objective of this case was report on the effects of acute whole body vibration exposure on stereotyped behaviour of young children with autism. Four young boys (ages 4-5 years) diagnosed with autism participated. The children were participants in an early intensive behavioural intervention clinic and during downtimes stood on a whole body vibration platform with the machine turned off (control condition) and on (treatment condition) for three to four, 30 s periods (frequency=28 Hz; amplitude 0.97 mm). The outcome measure was frequency of stereotypic behaviour, which was evaluated for 5 min before and after standing on the vibration platform. The results revealed that whole body vibration was not able to uniformly decrease the rates of all types of stereotypy; that is, some stereotypy decreased while others were unchanged. Subjectively, the children enjoyed whole body vibration which was easy to integrate into the behavioural programme.