%0 Journal Article %T The Effect of Selected Exercise Group on Motor Skills and Cognitive Functions in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders %J Sport Sciences and Health Research %I University of Tehran Press %Z 2981-0205 %A Ghayour Najafabadi, Mahbubeh %A Sobh-Rhakhshankhah, Amir %A Niyazi, Sepideh %D 2019 %\ 07/01/2019 %V 11 %N 2 %P 105-112 %! The Effect of Selected Exercise Group on Motor Skills and Cognitive Functions in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders %K Sports %K Play and acyive Recreation for Kids (SPARK) %K Autism Spectrum Disorder %K executive function %K motor skill %R 10.32598/JESM.11.2.5 %X Introduction: The present study aimed to determine the effects of a selected group exercise on motor skills and cognitive function in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).Methods: Forty children with ASD aged 5-12 years participated in this quasi-experimental study. The Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP), and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were performed in 3 assessment stages of baseline, pretest, and posttest in Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK). The repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used for analyzing the collected data.Results: The current research results demonstrated that the selected exercises presented positive effects on motor skills (P<0.05) in the studied subjects; however, they indicated no significant effects on their cognitive function (P>0.05).Conclusion: According to the present study results, the SPARK’s training is effective on children with ASDs and severe mobility limitations; however, it presented no cognitive function improvement in the study participants. %U https://sshr.ut.ac.ir/article_77889_8b1434755b8831d74d5d48bf366f2eac.pdf