La ricerca scientifica sulla TMA

AUTISMO: ITALIANA LA PRIMA RICERCA SULL’EFFICACIA DELLA TERAPIA IN ACQUA PER BAMBINI E RAGAZZI CON DISTURBO DELLO SPETTRO AUTISTICO

È Italiana la prima ricerca, pubblicata sul Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, una delle più prestigiose riviste scientifiche internazionali per l’autismo, sull’efficacia della TMA (Terapia Multisistemica in Acqua metodo Caputo-Ippolito) nel trattamento dei deficit del funzionamento adattivo di bambini con autismo.

La TMA è una metodologia d’intervento multisistemico frutto di un lavoro ultraventennale in acqua, sviluppata specificamente per persone con disturbo dello spettro autistico. L’autismo è un complesso disordine dello sviluppo neurologico a insorgenza precoce che attualmente colpisce circa 1 persona su 100; è quattro volte più frequente nei maschi rispetto alle femmine, e non conosce barriere razziali, etniche o sociali. La persona affetta da tale disarmonia può presentare anche disabilità intellettiva e, in un terzo dei casi, altri disturbi neurologici, come ad esempio l’epilessia. Le persone con disturbo dello spettro autistico hanno peculiari difficoltà di comunicazione verbale e non verbale, d’interazione sociale, con interessi ristretti e comportamenti ripetitivi; possono essere rilevanti i problemi del funzionamento adattivo, ad esempio nella gestione delle attività legate al tempo libero e al gioco. La TMA, nata dal lavoro di Giovanni Caputo e Giovanni Ippolito, nasce con lo specifico obiettivo di sviluppare una metodologia d’intervento globale (multisitemica) che tenga conto degli aspetti relazionali, emotivi, comportamentali e d’integrazione sociale della persona con autismo; il programma è inserito all’interno del contesto familiare e realizzato in ambiente naturale, la piscina pubblica, che offre un’opportunità unica di interazione e partecipazione sociale.

La ricerca (Effectiveness of a Multisystem Aquatic Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Caputo et al. (2018), Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-017-3456-y  è stata condotta in collaborazione con Massimiliano Conson professore del Dipartimento di Psicologia dell’Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli (Caserta). I risultati hanno dimostrato che un programma d’intervento di 10 mesi con TMA metodo Caputo-Ippolito è in grado di produrre miglioramenti significativi rispetto a un gruppo di controllo (bambini con autismo che non hanno preso parte al trattamento multisistemico) in differenti ambiti del funzionamento adattivo, oltre che migliorare le capacità natatorie dei partecipanti. In particolare, i bambini sottoposti alla TMA hanno mostrato miglioramenti significativi nell’adattamento funzionale, nella espressione delle emozioni, nella capacità di adattamento ai cambiamenti e nel livello di attività generale, tutte abilità misurate con appropriati strumenti formalizzati. I risultati dunque suggeriscono che la TMA metodo Caputo Ippolito sia utile per intervenire efficacemente su molteplici aree di funzionamento del bambino con disturbo dello spettro autistico, promuovendo rilevanti cambiamenti negli aspetti comportamentali ed emotivi del disturbo. È possibile consultare la ricerca sul sito del Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders al link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-017-3456-y.

Qui di seguito il relativo abstract

Abstract “Effectiveness of a Multisystem Aquatic Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders”, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,

Aquatic therapy improves motor skills of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but its usefulness for treating functional difficulties needs to be verified yet. We tested effectiveness of a multisystem aquatic therapy on behavioural, emotional, social and swimming skills of children with ASD. Multisystem aquatic therapy was divided in three phases (emotional adaptation, swimming adaptation and social integration) implemented in a 10-months-programme. At post-treatment, the aquatic therapy group showed significant improvements relative to controls on functional adaptation (Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales), emotional response, adaptation to change and on activity level (Childhood Autism Rating Scale). Swimming skills learning was also demonstrated. Multisystem aquatic therapy is useful for ameliorating functional impairments of children with ASD, going well beyond a swimming training.

 

Keywords

Aquatic therapy Autism Spectrum Disorders Intervention Social-communicative skills Functional adaptation

 

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3456-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

 

Notes

Author Contributions

GC participated in Conception and Organization of the Research project and Manuscript Preparation (Writing, Review and Critique of the manuscript). GI participated in Conception, Organization and Execution of the Research project and Review of the manuscript. MM participated in Organization and Execution of the Research project and Review of the manuscript. LS participated in Organization and Execution of the Research project and Execution of the Statistical Analysis. MRM participated in Execution of the Research project and Review of the manuscript. SS participated in Execution of the Research project and Execution of the Statistical Analysis. MC participated in Conception and Organization of the Research project and Design and Execution of Statistical Analysis and Manuscript Preparation (Writing, Review and Critique of the manuscript).

 

Compliance with Ethical Standards

 

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

 

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

 

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

 

Supplementary material

10803_2017_3456_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx (36 kb)

Supplementary material 1 (XLSX 35 KB)

 

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