Physiological and Psychological Effects of Parental Traditional Thai Massage on Children with Autism: A Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Introduction Although many autistic children receive massage as a complementary therapy, it is not included in evidence-based practices for autism since evidence of its efficacy is lacking. Further, prior studies have failed to identify objective indicators of core symptoms or elucidate their mechanisms. We developed a parent-delivered traditional Thai massage (TTM) on children intervention with autism, aim is to access the physiological (gait and heart rate variability) and psychological effects of intervention. Methods and analysis A two-armed, parallel randomized controlled trial study will recruit forty-eight children with autism from the XX Special Education School at the beginning of Febuary2022. They will be randomly assigned to either a parental TTM or control group with a ratio of 1:1. Individuals in the parental TTM group will receive 16 parent-delivered TTM sessions over 8 weeks. The outcome will be assessed on admission, after 8 weeks, and as well as at 2-month follow-up, including the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist score, heart rate variability, gait, and parenting stress index. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approved by the Khon Kaen University Ethics Committee for Human Research (XXXX). Result will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and give presentations in domestic and international academic conferences to further promote communication. Trial registration number XXXXXX Strengths and limitations of this study This will be the first RCT to explore parental TTM in terms of its physiological and psychological effects on children with autism. Compared with previous studies, we access the objective index to discuss the possible mechanisms of observed effects. Our study may highlight the value of complementary and alternative therapies for adjunctive treatment of autism to enhance family-based interventions Both parents and blind teachers will evaluate for effects to decreases the subjectivity of bias. And the variability massage manipulation by parents is minimized by training with experts, examinations, and supervision.