can internal attentional focus be used to facilitate motor learning in children with autism spectrum disorder?

Background :children with autism spectrum disorder (asd) have difficult experiences in body precise movements and have difficulty performing common basic movements. objectives :this study aimed to examine the comparative of attentional focus on motor learning in children with autism disorder. methods :this study employed a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design with a retention test. the statistical population consisted of all ten-year-old male students with asd in shiraz. using a convenience sampling technique, 30 autistic students were selected and evenly divided into three groups (n = 10 per group): control, external focus, and internal focus.the task under investigation was a clay-court tennis ball throw at a designated ground target. following the pre-test, participants in each group practiced the skill in six blocks of 10 trials each. a retention test, consisting of 10 trials, was administered 48 hours after the post-test.the collected data were analyzed using a mixed model anova via spss software (version 26). results :the results showed that all 3 groups showed significant improvement in performance during the training blocks in the acquisition phase (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the groups. in the retention test, the internal focus group showed the best performance (p ≤ 0.05), but no difference was found between the external focus and control groups (p > 0.05). conclusions :thus, it can be said that children with autism learn better when they exercise and get internal focus instructions. to ascertain the causes causing this conclusion, more research is necessary.