The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of an aquatic intervention on the gross motor function and aquatic skills of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Twenty-nine children with CP, aged 5 to 14, were recruited. Fourteen children completed an aquatic intervention (EG), and 13 children served as controls (CG). Two participants dropped out due to events (illness) unrelated to the intervention. The aquatic intervention lasted 6 weeks (2 sessions per week at 55 minutes per session) with a follow-up period of 3 weeks. The outcome measures were the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) for motor function and the Water Orientation Test Alyn 2 (WOTA 2) for aquatic skills assessment. A significant improvement was observed in the secondary assessment of GMFM and WOTA 2. In contrast to the aquatic skills improvement, the GMFM change was not maintained at follow-up. Our results indicate that children with CP can improve gross motor function on dry land and aquatic skills with a 6-week water intervention. The intervention period was too short for sustainable improvement in dry-land motor skills after intervention (follow-up), but time was sufficient to achieve sustainable improvements in aquatic skills.
Summary The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of an adapted basketball training program on the cardiorespiratory fitness and sport skills performance of adolescents with mental retardation (MR). Fifty adolescents with mild MR who participated in this study were divided in two groups. Experimental group (n = 25; mean ± SD age: 15.7 ± 0.9 years) performed the adapted training program, four times per week during eight weeks. A control group (n = 25; mean ± SD age: 15.9 ± 0.8 years) followed ordinary physical education classes and continued with their normal lifestyle. Exercise testing included the six-minute walk test (6MWT), monitoring of heart rate frequency and sport skills performance test battery. Results showed a significant difference between groups pre- and post-treatment in 6MWT distance. The experimental group experienced a 10% increase in covered distance pre- to post-testing (p < 0.05), whereas controls had no significant changes in the same period. Conducted adapted training also resulted in significant improvement in examined sport skills performance. However, this kind and duration of experimental procedure did not result in significant differences in anthropometric variables and heart rate frequency. This study demonstrated that adapted basketball training is an adequate stimulus for improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness and sport skills performance of adolescents with mild MR. The advantage of this type of adaptive training program is that it does not require a large financial input, but only the engagement of a qualified and dedicated physical education professor.
Introduction: Previous studies have established a direct connection between levels of physical fitness and the time needed to perform daily tasks in adults with intellectual disabilities. These findings indicate that physical activity can improve the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effects of an eight-week specially adapted basketball training program on the physical fitness of adolescents with mental retardation. Methods: Twelve adolescents (6 males and 6 females, mean age 15.1±1.5 yrs) with mental retardation participated in the study. A specially adapted basketball training program was conducted four times per week over eight consecutive weeks. Each training session lasted approximately 30 minutes. Anthropometric measurements included height, weight, and percentper cent body fat. Exercise testing included monitoring of heart rate (HR at rest and HR at the end of the 6-MWT) and the six-minute walk test (6-MWT). Results: The obtained results showed that the specially adapted training program improved the physical fitness of adolescents with mental retardation (6-MWT distance 473.7 m ±74.5 pre vs. 672.6 m ± 76.1 post, p<0.05; HR at the end of the 6-MWT 122.1 beats/min ± 16.5 pre vs. 116.8 beats/min ± 9.4 post, p<0.05); however, this type of training did not decrease body weight or percentper cent body fat in the adolescent participants. Conclusion: Considering the small number of participants who were involved in the study, the obtained results provide only limited information on the sources and magnitude of the variation in response measures, but these results support the design of a full-scale experiment on this topic.
The aim of this research was to determine the influence of the experimental program on improving physical fitness in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). For the needs of a dual prospective study of the cohort, 122 adolescents aged 13 to 17 with mild ID were recruited and then divided into two groups, experimental (EG) and control (CG). The EG was subjected to a special program of sports games (SSGP) lasting 12 weeks, four times a week, with 30-minute duration of each session. CG was subjected to the program of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (MP), with the same duration, weekly frequency and session duration, with one session per week being the time of the selected sport. The data for 30 adolescents within EG and CG were collected for further analysis, respectively. Physical fitness of the respondents was tested using the Eurofit fitness test battery: standing long jump (SLJ), single-arm ball pushing (SABP), sit-ups (SUP), 25-meter run (R25), seated forward bend (SFB), bench walking (BW1), and narrow bench walking (BW2). SSGP led to statistically significant improvements in EG concerning arm's explosive strength, local muscular endurance, speed and flexibility of the hip. The results of ANOVA and MANOVA indicated that after the implementation of SSGP, there was a statistically significant positive difference in favor of EG compared to CG. It can be concluded that the SSGP contributed with a greater extent to the development of physical fitness than MP in adolescents with ID.
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