PHYSIOTHERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION IN THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD): LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The treatment of children with ASD must be multidisciplinary, personalized and permanent throughout the life cycle, in constant review and monitoring, to promote the full development of the potential of people with ASD, their social integration and their quality of life. Physiotherapy serves to work on the recognition of the body scheme and the motor and sensory response, improving the body's relationship with reality and helping to build a safer and more trusting relationship. Review the literature on the importance of physiotherapeutic intervention in the treatment of children with ASD and suggest other areas of research in physiotherapy and ASD, considering how physiotherapy can benefit children with autism. Literature review, where all relevant studies were extracted by searching the SCIELO, CAPES and PUBMED databases. To carry out the searches, the following descriptors were used: “Physiotherapy”, “Autism”, “Treatment”. The search in the databases was carried out in August 2023. The inclusion criteria were original articles, published in the period between 2018 and 2023, available in Portuguese and English, indexed in the aforementioned databases that dealt with the physiotherapy in the treatment of children with ASD. The compilation of articles in the databases highlighted the parameters listed to reach the total number of studies used, which were 14 articles. Approaching children with ASD through physiotherapy has the consequence of highlighting possible care that, established from an early age, can serve to improve functional independence, especially when the prognosis is worse due to the concomitance of multiple symptoms.