The Effects of a Nurse-led Community-based Sailing Programme on Resilience of School-aged Children With Autism: An RCT

Launched by CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG · Jun 29, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying whether a nurse-led sailing program can help improve the resilience—that is, the ability to cope with challenges—of children with autism who attend regular schools. The researchers also want to see if the sailing program can boost the children’s quality of life, self-esteem, mood, and social skills. To find out, they will compare children who take part in the sailing activities with those who do simple crafting activities that don’t involve emotional or personal discussions.

Children between 7 and 12 years old with a confirmed diagnosis of autism and who go to inclusive schools where students with and without autism learn together may be eligible. Participants must be able to understand and communicate in Chinese and complete questionnaires in that language. The sailing group will join a six-day program led by nurses, with four one-hour sessions each day, totaling 24 hours of sailing activities. The other group will spend the same amount of time doing crafting activities. Children with previous sailing experience or severe motion sickness won’t be able to join. This study is not recruiting yet but aims to see if this unique sailing program can provide meaningful benefits for children with autism.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Be between the ages of 7 and 12,
• • Have a confirmed diagnosis of ASD,
• • Be enrolled in an inclusive education school,
• • Possess the ability to complete the questionnaire in Chinese,
• • Be able to communicate in Chinese.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • With sailing experience,
• • With a history of severe motion sickness symptoms.