Running Head: ARTICLE CRITIQUE #1

Article Critique #1
Efficacy of the Get Ready to Learn Yoga Program Among Children with Autism Spectrum
Disorders: A Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design
Alison Lessard
University of Calgary
EDPS 612.03

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Article Critique #1
This paper is a critical review of the article titled, Efficacy of the Get Ready to Learn
Yoga Program Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Pretest-Posttest Control
Group Design (Koenig, Buckley-Reen & Garg, 2012). The article describes a research study
performed to examine the effectiveness of a manualized yoga program, Get Ready to Learn Yoga
(GRTL) in reducing maladaptive behaviors and self-regulation difficulties of children with
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
Research Purpose and Hypothesis
A rise in the number of individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has
also resulted in an increased demand for evidence-based interventions that support the diverse
needs of this population. Students with ASD typically struggle with self-regulation and
experience high or low levels of emotional arousal. It is often difficult for children with ASD to
maintain a calm, alert state that is conducive to learning (Koenig et al., 2012). Koenig, BuckleyReen, and Garg (2012) stated numerous interventions are offered in schools for children with
disabilities, and several are frequently offered at once. This makes it exceedingly difficult to
assess the efficacy of any one intervention. According to Koenig et al. (2012), yoga has been
classified as a mind-body intervention by the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative
medicine and is often used as a complimentary approach in occupational therapy. In recent years,
yoga has become increasingly adopted as a universal, targeted, and individualized intervention in
schools. A variety of target areas include attention/concentration, impulse control, strength,
motor coordination, and self-regulation (Koenig et al., 2012).
Prior studies according to Koenig et al. (2012) have demonstrated the positive effects of
yoga in individuals with ASD, but had a lack of methodological and statistical rigor, including

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small sample sizes, lack of comparison groups and no use of a manualized program. In addition,
intervention periods were often short and there was limited adherence to a specific practice,
pattern, or style of yoga. The stated the purpose of this study was to examine whether GRTL
programming among children with ASD resulted in a decrease in maladaptive behaviors that
interfere with appropriate classroom functioning. Koenig et al. (2012) hypothesized children
who participated in the GRTL program would exhibit a decrease in interfering behaviors and
would show an increase in adaptive classroom behaviors such as ability to focus and reduced
incidence of teacher direction.
Participants
The sample consisted of 48 children from a large urban school where over 700 students
with ASD are taught in a segregated setting. Participants were selected by school administration
from 6 classrooms. 25 students were selected for the intervention and 22 were in the control
group. All participants had a diagnosis of ASD, were of elementary school age (5-12), and had
no coexisting medical conditions that would affect their participation in GRTL program.
Methods: Measures and Procedures
A pretest-posttest control group design was used within a convenience sample.
Participating classes were chosen by school administration to ensure the control and intervention
participants had similar levels of adaptive functioning. The parents of all participants completed
the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II (VABS-II) to confirm their adaptive functioning level
prior to and after the study. The Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC)-Community was used both
pre and post intervention in order to assess participants behavior across multiple settings. Video
observation was conducted immediately after GRTL session in intervention classrooms and after
regular morning routine in control settings. Research assistants tallied the frequency of off task

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behavior and number of required teacher redirects for each participant. GRTL was implemented
every school day for 16 weeks for about 15-20 minutes per session. The authors of the study
were also involved in monitoring the fidelity of implementation.
Results and Conclusions
The results of the study were consistent with the authors hypothesis, as the children in
who participated in the GRTL group displayed significantly less maladaptive behavior as
measured by the ABC-Community scale.
Strengths and Limitations
According to Koenig et al. (2012), a main concern regarding previous studies of yogabased intervention programs was intensity and duration was often neglected. Koenig et al.s
(2012) study provided a daily, easily implemented, manualized program. There was also a
reportedly a high level of fidelity and overall satisfaction noted on behalf of the teachers
delivering the intervention.
Some of the limitations of this study were the use of a convenience sample of an intact
group where there was no random sampling. The teachers who participated were not blind to the
study and the results could have been subjected to bias. The sample size (n = 48) was also very
small and the participants were from a school that specializes in educating students with ASD in
self-contained autistic support classrooms. The small sample size and the specialized
educational setting could have influenced the results and may not be an adequate representation
of the general population of individuals with ASD. In addition, only 77% of the parents of the
intervention and control groups completed the post-test ABC-Community, which may have
altered the results by response bias.
Overall, this study provided important information related to the efficacy of yoga-based

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interventions for reducing maladaptive behaviors of individuals with ASD. It would be
beneficial if future research of GRTL included a larger sample, inclusion of individuals with
ASD from regular classroom settings, and a longer intervention period.

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References
Koenig, K. P., Buckley-Reen, A., & Garg, S. (2012). Efficacy of the get ready to
learn yoga program among children with autism spectrum disorders: A
pretest-posttest control group design. The American Journal of
Occupational Therapy : Official Publication of the American
Occupational Therapy Association, 66(5), 538.
doi:10.5014/ajot.2012.004390