Effect of Adapted Physical Activities on Selected Psychomotor Variables of Children with Intellectual Disability

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of of adapted physical activities on selected psychomotor variables of children with intellectual disability.Thirty mild intellectual disabled (IQ=50-70) students who were attending the Special Education at Special Education Unit, Faculty of Disability Management, Coimbatore, were selected for this study. Participants were randomly assigned to physical training and yogic practices (N=15) and control (N=15) groups. Their age ranged from 14 to 21 years. The participants had not taken part in any regular exercise program before entering to this study. The experimental group has undergone 6 weeks of Adapted Physical Activities, whereas control group maintained their daily routine activities and no special training was given. Training program for individuals with intellectual disabilities was 60 minutes in length and met 3 days a week. Supervised exercise training is an important issue in increasing physical activity in people with intellectual disability. The training was executed by adapting progressive method as slower pace and frequent repetition to aid in the maintenance of acquired skills. The following tests were performed: Psychomotor variables: Finger dexterity, hand eye coordination and reaction time. The analysis of covariance revealed that the adapted physical activities had significantly improved all the selected variables namely Finger dexterity, hand eye coordination and reaction time. Therefore the findings suggest that adapted physical activities are important for individuals with intellectual disability to increase their psychomotor components.

Author Name : Dr. M. Srinivasan, R. Giridharan

Keywords: Adapted Physical Activities, Psychomotor, Intellectual Disability.