Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurophysiological disorder of widespread developmental disorders. Since each child with ASD is a unique case, the causative factors of ASD are currently unknown. Through summarizing the literature both in China and abroad, we have found that two major factors, genetic and environmental, are related to the pathogenesis of ASD. Although exercise intervention has not been included by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a treatment for ASD, studies have found that exercise intervention can improve the repetitive and rigid behaviors, academic performance, and social interaction ability of ASD children, and help ASD children obtain a better quality of life. Partial function improvement of children with ASD by exercise may involve stimulation strengthening mechanism, neurobiochemical mechanism, brain structure and organization mechanism, etc. In the future, more rigorous experimental studies can be conducted on these mechanisms to explore the core mechanisms of exercise in improving ASD children and the relationship between the mechanisms. The current research mostly focuses on the single exercise intervention with low intensity. In the future practice, we can try to appropriately strengthen the exercise intensity, and consider the combination of a variety of exercise ways to design a personalized exercise intervention plan for children with ASD.