AU - Shamiri, Mehrnoush AU - Shojaei, Masoumeh AU - Ashayeri, Hassan AU - Daneshfar, Afkham TI - Effect of Perceptual-Motor activities on the Mirror Neurons Training, Behavioral Disorders and Social development in Children with High Functioning Autism PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE TA - ijmcl JN - ijmcl VO - 1 VI - 2 IP - 2 4099 - http://ijmcl.com/article-1-26-en.html 4100 - http://ijmcl.com/article-1-26-en.pdf SO - ijmcl 2 AB  - Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are developmental conditions characterized by deficits in social interaction, motor performance, and obsessive/stereotyped patterns of behavior. Although there is no reliable neurophysiological marker associated with ASD, dysfunction of the parietal-frontal mirror neuron system has been suggested as a disturbance linked to the disorder. Objective: The purpose of this applied and basic study was to investigate the effect of perceptual-motor training on the mirror neuron activity, behavioral disorders, and social development in children with high function autism. Methods: The pretest-posttest randomized-group research design was used for this quasi-experimental research. Therefore, 12 children with high function autism (7-11 years) were selected from a special school and then assigned into two groups (experimental and control). Social development, behavioral disorders, and mirror neurons activity were assessed at baseline (pre-intervention), week 8 ( post-intervention). The experimental group received perceptual motor training three times per week for 8 weeks). Data were analyzed by independent t-test, mixed 2 ˟ 2 ˟ 2 ˟ 3 ANOVA, mix ANOVA 2 ˟ 2 at the p<0.05 significance. Results: Results showed that perceptual motor training significantly reduced behavioral disorders(p<0.05), and increased social development in the experimental group(p<0.05). furthermore, there was a significant improvement in MNs activity in the experimental group compared with the control group. (p<0.05). Conclusion: These results can affect the improvement of autistic children and it emphasized the role of motor skills in autistic children school schedule. CP - IRAN IN - Faculty of Physical Education, Al-Zahra University, Tehran, Iran LG - eng PB - ijmcl PG - 19 PT - Original Article YR - 2019