Impact

What We Hear From Parents

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Would recommend ACEing Autism

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Are extremely satisfied with the
ACEing Autism program

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Feel they found a meaningful activity for their child in ACEing Autism

How Do Children Benefit From ACEing Autism?

We seek to learn and improve. Our Program Directors in communities across the country assess changes in children’s tennis, motor, behavioral and social skills, along with repetitive behaviors, mood, and on-task engagement based on participation in a six to eight-week session. UCLA Center for Autism Research & Treatments (UCLA CART) partners with ACEing Autism to learn how tennis benefits kids with autism, helping conduct the survey and analysis of results. Here are the areas of improvement we’ve discovered.
Tennis Skills
Improvement / Significant Improvement 90%
Motor Skills
Improvement / Significant Improvement 90%
General Behavior
Improvement / Significant Improvement 78%
Social Skills
Improvement / Significant Improvement 92%
Mood
Improvement / Significant Improvement 78%
On-Task Engagement
Improvement / Significant Improvement 82%
Repetitive Behaviors
Improvement / Significant Improvement 64%

What We Hear From Program Directors

0 %

saw improvement in hand-eye coordination

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saw improvement in the participants’ social and communication skills with volunteers and directors

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saw improvement in eye tracking

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saw improvement in the participants’ social and communication skills with other participants

Our survey results show that ACEing Autism’s program is a great vehicle to help connect kids through tennis with adaptive warm-ups and racquet skills, hand-eye coordination drills and games. Our program helps build a foundation for children to continue to engage in physical activity and provides broad areas of improvement in both motor and non-motor areas after participation.

Tennis skills, motor skills, and social skills showed the greatest area of improvement, suggesting that ACEing Autism is particularly well-adapted to engage children in group-based tennis and motor-skill activities that are also socially engaging with other participants and volunteers. ACEing Autism assesses participants’ improvement annually.

Additional Reading

You can find more information on the benefits of tennis and sports on children with autism through these studies.

Organized Physical Activity Programs: Improving Motor and Non-motor Symptoms in Neurodevelopmental Disorders by Nicole J Rinehart, Shafali Jeste, and Rujuta Wilson
AUCD AIRP Presents Rujuta Wilson: Brain and Body in Motion
Improving Awareness, Identification, and Treatment of Motor Impairments in Autism by Rujuta Wilson
The Outcomes of an Adapted Tennis Program in Children and Adults with Developmental Disabilities by Loriane Dos Santos Favoretto
American Development Model Manual by Rujuta Wilson. Published in March 2020.
Early Autism Meets its Match by Shafali Jeste. Published on November 30, 2021, on Spectrum News.