QiGong Massage Benefits Children With Autism.

A recent randomized controlled trial of a dual parent and trainer-delivered qigong massage intervention for young children with autism "resulted in improvement of measures of autism as well as improvement of abnormal sensory responses and self-regulation," according to an abstract published on www.pubmed.gov.

Forty-seven children were randomly assigned to treatment and wait-list control groups. Treatment group children received the parent-delivered program for four months, according to the abstract.

"Trained therapists provided parent training and support," the abstract noted. "Improvement was evaluated in two settings--preschool and home—by teachers (blind to group) and parents.

"Results showed that the parent-delivered program was effective in improving measures of autism (medium effect size) and sensory and self-regulatory responses (large effect size)," the abstract continued. "Teacher data on measures of autism were confirmed by parent data. Results indicate that the parent-delivered component of the program provided effective early intervention for autism that was suitable for delivery at home.

Results of the study, "Early intervention for autism with a parent-delivered Qigong massage program: a randomized controlled trial" were published in theAmerican Journal of Occupational Therapy.