 Can the martial arts help people with autism and those on the spectrum? And if so, how can they help and what kind of benefits can be expected? Autism spectrum disorders, also known as ASD, is one of the leading developmental challenges in the country and the severity can range from minor to highly debilitating. I wanted to talk about this today as an experimental venture into this topic. Now, I am not an expert on ASD by any means, and in fact, I'm still learning a lot about it. However, I have been asked on many occasions to talk about how martial arts may play a role in the lives of people living with ASD. And in my years of teaching, I have had the opportunity to work with several children on various ranges of the spectrum. This is going to be an open door video in which I will relate my experiences, challenges and solutions that I have encountered and also offer a few suggestions for one, parents who have a child on the spectrum. Two, martial arts instructors who may have had a student with ASD, and three, those of you who are watching and are on the spectrum yourselves. I will also be referring to a study by Janice Fung and Wendy Goldberg that involved engaging children on the spectrum with a mixed martial arts program. Now, this study was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and I have provided a handful of links to that in the video description if you wanted to read more about that. Children with ASD can have a vast array of social, cognitive and behavioral challenges. Difficulty with making eye contact, engaging in social activities, following back and forth conversations, staying focused on tasks and getting upset at slight changes in routine are just a few of the challenges they may encounter. They may also have extreme reactions to sensory inputs such as noises, crowds, lights and other environmental stimuli. And as I said a minute ago, every person is different and there are various degrees of ability. Some children are still highly functioning and others present more obstacles. So if you are a martial arts instructor and you have a child in class that exhibits some or all of these signs, then this means that you may have to adjust the way that you work with them in class. But please do not just write them off as being different, abnormal or stunning them because you feel they can't follow the same routine as some of their classmates. And in fact, you know, in many cases a person on the spectrum may have the potential to become a phenomenal martial artist. Even though a person may face challenges on the spectrum, many people with ASD have several strengths too, including an above average ability for visual and auditory learning, being able to observe and recall information in high detail and having the skills to excel in detail oriented studies such as math, science, art, music and anything that involves patterns or repetition. Patterns and repetition, that being a major advantage when learning the martial arts. People with ASD also often have difficulty in what is called executive functioning, which to be summarized very quickly, is a set of cognitive skills that involve working memory, flexible thinking and self-control. Now the study performed by Janice Fung and Wendy Goldberg was established to analyze the impact that martial arts training had on deficiencies in executive functioning. They put together a group of 43 children that were diagnosed with ASD and randomly assigned them either to a group that would partake in MMA classes or a control group. In the ages range between 8 to 11 years old and the children assigned to the MMA group took part in a 13 week course, two classes a week. They were taught grappling and basic striking skills and run through rudimentary MMA class. In addition to martial arts training, the children also participated in meditation, social interaction and even engaged in light sparring. At the end of the 13 weeks, both the researchers and parents had reported massive improvements. Researchers noticed an increase in executive functioning and parents were reporting improved behavior and emotional regulation. Janice Fung is quoted in an article from Psypost, which is also included in the links below, and she stated that Executive functioning deficits such as poor impulse control and emotional dysregulation do not need to be permanent. They are immeasurable and they can be improved upon with effortful practice. Martial arts training may be one way to help improve executive functioning abilities, particularly in populations with poor executive functioning. So, while the studies and research is still really new, early signs are showing that the martial arts in fact may be able to help people with ASD. And additionally, I have heard from several of you who have shared very positive experiences from your training. I also have a few personal experiences with students that reinforce this. For example, we had two students that started really young with us, and we're going to call them Alan and Dustin. Both were socially withdrawn and they had challenges controlling their emotions. Alan would cry and break down and isolate himself whenever he encountered a change in class or anything he felt that was an obstacle. He was highly intellectual and he loved reading and talking, so we adapted a lot of our interaction with him to focus on verbal communication and encouraged him to analyze the drills and made notes of any changes he might encounter and we went slowly to acclimate him to the lessons. Over the course of a few years, the breakdowns happened less and less and we were able to give him more academic information on his training and his sense of humor started to come out more and he eventually was able to partake in class without any major issues. The last time I saw him was a couple of years after he left to school. He came by to say hi and bye as he was graduating high school, driving on his own and getting ready to go to college. Dustin was a little bit younger than Alan. He was a great listener, extremely kind and very smart. You could explain a technique to him and he would have no trouble absorbing it. His challenge, however, was one of anger. I saw him in class one day, he was maybe ten at the time, and all the kids were in the line taking turns hitting the wave master. And I noticed that his jaw was clenched and his fists were tight at his sides so much that his knuckles were white. I asked him what was wrong and he said nothing. So I asked him again why he was so tense. He looked me with a look that was equal part rage and equal part fear and said I'm just so angry right now and I don't know why. He never showed any violent tendencies and he never had any outbursts, but we did have to exercise a lot of caution when he was working with the other students. Not because of his temper, but rather he has a lot of trouble regulating his power. He was very tall for his age and at age ten he was about six foot like I am. He was twice as large and about four times as strong as his other classmates. We didn't allow him to spar with them because of his lack of control and we were seriously afraid that he would hurt somebody by accident. So we had to spar with him ourselves as the instructors and with some of the other teenagers. We had to spend a lot of time working with him running drills and pad work and whenever he was feeling angry we let him work it out on the pads. Whenever he was a little bit more receptive we'd run drills with him to help him control his strikes. We always encouraged him. We always listened to whatever he had to say which usually wasn't very much, but he was a great listener. After about a year and a half he had gained considerable amount of control. He was much more relaxed in class. He had learned to regulate his power to the point that he was allowed to spar his classmates again and he even went so far as to help out in class and assist other students. He was about twelve or thirteen when he left the school, but we had seen major growth in improvement. Now I don't know anything about the therapies or home life conditions that Alan and Dustin experienced outside the school, but we were very very proud of the progress that he both had made. Unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way. One particular challenge was a family of three siblings with all three siblings on the spectrum. We're going to call them Jennifer, John and Jane. All three started with us during a summer camp program. Jennifer was the oldest and extremely high functioning to the point we really didn't even notice any difference in behavior. The challenge with her was boredom and complete disinterest in the martial arts and she quit as soon as the summer program was over. John was the middle child and he had significant challenges with executive function and he was one of the most challenging students that I have ever had to deal with in my time teaching. He had extreme difficulty engaging in conversation. His attention span was virtually non-existent. If you called on him and instructed him to his place in line, he would listen, but the very second you took your eye off him, he would take off and run around the room, arms out pretending to be an airplane. He would have outbursts in class and he was completely unable to participate with partner drills. He was also one of the gentlest children I ever met. There wasn't a single aggressive bone in this child's body. We struggled to get him to hit even the hand mitts because he just didn't have any inclination to exert any kind of strike or force. The only way we were able to manage a class with him in it was to have an assistant instructor stand by his side and work with him one-on-one. The hope was that he would gradually improve and be able to integrate more into the classes. But we weren't seeing that progress and even after a year or two, there was no improvement and he became increasingly disruptive to the point his parents had to withdraw him from the class. His youngest sister Jane had milder challenges. She was very quiet, very, very smart, but she had a lot of aversion to tactile responses, particularly about putting her hands on the floor. She always didn't pick up the lessons the first time around, but she always tried until she got it and eventually, as she aged into a teenager, she was able to test for and achieve her junior black belt. All three children on the spectrum had vastly different challenges and requirements. Jane was able to improve and adapt, but unfortunately, John was not. The last time I saw him, he came with his mom to pick up Jane from class, and we were doing weapons drills that day with nunchucks and boastaffes, and John saw me and he wanted to say hi. Well, he just walked right through the class, completely oblivious to all the flailing weapons, to come up and say hello. I had the clear path for him and quickly ushered him off to the side, and I tried to explain to him about how to walk around the room safely, but sadly, he just didn't seem to understand. So it really saddens me that sometimes, even though we see a lot of improvement, there are a lot of children who have other needs and maybe the martial arts aren't the best thing for them at that time, and maybe not until other needs are addressed. So if I'm going to offer any sort of a takeaway from this, other than I think the martial arts can definitely help people with ASD, it's to offer a few of my own personal suggestions. If you are a parent with a child with ASD and are considering putting them in the martial arts class, please sit down with the instructor first and explain your child's needs and goals. Trust me, this not only helps us run the class, but it also allows us to customize a lesson plan for your child and find the most effective ways to communicate with them. We've had a couple of parents put their child in class without telling us they were on the spectrum. Most of the time, it's not really a big deal, but there was one in particular who had extremely explosive violent tendencies. Now, I'm not going to go into details, but one day he had a major outburst on a summer camp field trip and became extremely violent, attacked one of our counselors, and he had to be restrained until authorities arrived. His parents admitted then that they had lied about him having ASD and he was eventually pulled from the school. So, parents, please be open and honest with the instructor. A good instructor will work with you. If they are rude or dismissive, then you don't want your child in that school anyway. Now, if you are an instructor and you have a child or multiple children with ASD in your class, the best thing you could do to figure out is what kind of communication resonates best with that child. Barking commands and expecting them to fall in line with the others doesn't always work and it can cause them to withdraw further. Discipline is important, but it's even more important to make that connection and find which methods of communication work best. I have known instructors who were proud of how they handled a troubled student by applying a shoulder nerve pinch to get them to comply. I found that absolutely disgusting. Now, if you yourself are on the spectrum and are in the martial arts, chances are if you are training and watching this video, you are likely to know what is working for you and what you need. But just please know that a lot of instructors, myself included, often learn as we go and we may not always have the right answer or we may not always understand what you're feeling. So, one of the best things you can do is communicate in the best way you are able to. I know it can be really hard, but if you are able to convey your feelings whether good or bad, that helps us as teachers try to work with you and find solutions. I also just wanted to say that I personally admire anyone with ASD that goes to the martial arts. Martial arts training is already hard to begin with, so throwing in additional challenges in the mix can be completely overwhelming. I have been very proud of the students that we've had and the progress they've made and accomplished over the years, so please keep up the hard work. Now, I know this is a very hefty topic and we can go so much deeper into it, but today's objective was to just dip a tiny toe in the water. I would also value any input that you would like to share. If any of you out there have direct experience with ASD, either with yourself or a loved one, please share your experiences with us in the comments down below. I think the more that we can be aware of additional challenges, the better we can prepare ourselves to find solutions. Thank you so much for watching.