Diagnostics of Swimming Skills in Preparatory Swimming Teaching of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Summary Aim: The aim of this study is to present the results of the evaluation of the Preparatory Swimming Intervention Programme for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (PAS). Methods: The study used a method of participating observation by which evaluators diagnosed swimming skills. The diagnostic tool was Štochl’s scale of swimming skills evaluation (Štochl et al. 2005). A nonparametric sign test was chosen for the analysis of the results. Results: The results of the sign test showed that all probands studied had an overall improvement in all skills between measurements 1 and 2, 3 and 4 and also 1 and 4. In a comparison of individual probands, swimming skills improved between the 1st and 2nd measurements in two of them. The third proband achieved the greatest improvement between the 3rd and 4th measurements, the fourth between the 1st and 4th measurements. The fifth proband did not achieve a statistically significant improvement in the acquisition of swimming skills. Conclusions: The results of this study show that for the area of preparatory swimming lessons for children with PAS, it is possible to use the Štochl scale (Štochl 2002) for diagnosing swimming skills, thus enabling quantitative data to monitor the level of acquired swimming skills in these individuals.