کیوان ملانوروزی

Abstract Background and Objectives: Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face mobility challenges compared to their typically-developing peers. ASD is characterized by significant communication impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Motor difficulties, including impaired balance, gait, slower movement speeds, delayed motor development, coordination issues, and exaggerated movements, are commonly associated with ASD, affecting 21% to 100% of individuals. Moreover, individuals with ASD often struggle with recognizing and assessing stressful situations, leading to heightened stress responses. They typically respond faster to fear, experience high levels of self-perceived stress, and find it difficult to cope with everyday stressors. Sensitivity to stress may be linked to dysfunction in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, resulting in increased fatigue and fatigability. Studies have shown that skills taught through explicit methods tend to be less robust in demanding situations such as fatigue, psychological stress, and multi-tasking. Consequently, less prescriptive approaches like analogy learning have been suggested. Analogies help learners grasp new concepts by relating them to familiar, similar concepts. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of analogy learning and explicit learning on javelin-throwing performance in individuals with ASD and compare the effectiveness of both methods. Methods: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design with one control group. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics