SwingPingis ‒ An innovative and norm critical physical activity aid for everyone, everywhere

Abstract

Many children with disabilities face the risk of illness by being excluded from physical education. The purpose of this article is to investigate an open collaborative innovation that can contribute to more inclusive elements in physical education, resulting in a better quality of education for children and youths with a disability. The question asked here is whether performative, bodily, geographical, norm critical and collaborative aspects involved in the use of an innovative aid called Swing Table Tennis (SwingPingis), has any impact on teachers' perception of inclusion and well-being for the children using the innovation. The methods used in this study are interviews of children with disabilities and their physical education teachers, combined with participant observations carried out during classes using the tool. The findings indicate children and teachers perceive the tool as a means to an embodied, creative part of collaboration and involvement during the lesson, as well as in the teaching of the subject Physical Education. Children perceived SwingPingis as an opportunity to get motor training and build bodily capacities to perform, which in turn were reported as a feeling of the joy in movement. Teachers emphasize SwingPingis usefulness and accessibility. It is an asset in teaching as well as enabling and complementing other motor training in teaching.

Healthy Lifestyle Behavior, Goal Setting, and Personality among Older Adults: A Synthesis of Literature Reviews and Interviews

“…It can be presumed that people with both neuroticism and conscientiousness have a strong fear of their possible future self, thus forcing them to develop greater self-regulation and self-control in order to prevent negative health-related outcomes, and it makes them more eager to strive for HLBs. However, the level of conscientiousness was shown to be changeable [ 62 , 63 ]. Nonetheless, studies documented that one’s level of conscientiousness increases with age [ 64 ]; hence, we acknowledge that most of the literature reviewed in the current study and the interviews with older adults tended to focus on the characteristic of conscientiousness.…”

“…Therefore, this provides further evidence that conscientious people tend to take preventative actions to achieve health protection outcomes. Aside from age, social environment, and personal experience, psychological interventions such as behavioral cognitive therapy, mindfulness, and mental contrasting were found to be effective in increasing people’s level of conscientiousness by enhancing their commitment to goals and improving effective goal selection and goal striving, thus cultivating behavioral changes [ 63 ]. Based on this, interventions that include both physical activity and psychological elements should be promoted to cultivate conscientiousness and goal setting not only in older adults specifically but also in people in general, thus resulting in better HLB engagement.…”