Physical activity and sleep of children with autism spectrum disorder during school versus summer months: lessons learned from a pilot study

Abstract

Objectives Children’s physical activity (PA) and sleep are less favorable during out-of-school time compared to days when they attend school. There is a lack of evidence exploring if this pattern exists in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods A within-subjects observational pilot study assessed children with ASD’ PA and sleep during a school and summer month via accelerometers on their non-dominant wrist for 24 hr/day for 14 days. Wilcoxon signed-rank sum tests were employed to compare summer versus school differences. Results Six children with ASD (67% male, ∼6.6 years old, 50% non-Hispanic white, 66% overweight/obese) provided valid data. Reasons for a lack of valid data included participant 1) discomfort with wearing accelerometers, 2) unavailability during summer, and 3) providing one valid timepoint only. Six participants spent an additional +52.5 median minutes per day in moderate-to-vigorous PA (z=-1.99; p = 0.05) during school compared to summer. Children with ASD had higher moderate-to-vigorous PA on school month weekdays and weekend days compared to summer weekdays and weekend days (p < 0.05). Sleep duration was ∼ 7 h per night for this sample, with children’s bedtimes 25 min earlier on school versus summer nights. Conclusions PA and sleep differences may exist during school versus summer in children with ASD, however, studies in large samples of children with ASD that adopt supplementary measures of PA and sleep, and strategies to increase wear compliance, are needed.