A Study on the Impact of Different Sports Programs on the Self-esteem and Social Skills of Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the effects of different sports on the self-esteem and social skills of children with intellectual disabilities and to analyze the way they work. In a special school in Jiangsu Province, researchers randomly selected 32 children with mild intellectual disabilities and assigned them equally to a basketball group, an aerobics group, an athletics group and a control group. The three intervention groups underwent a 12-week sports and games intervention, while the control group maintained its original teaching schedule. The study used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Social Skills Rating Scale for Children with Intellectual Disabilities, which was modified and validated by experts, to collect data before and after the intervention, and compared the four groups by mixed-factor ANOVA. The results showed that there were significant differences in the group main effect, the number of measurements main effect, and the interaction effect of group and time with respect to self-esteem and social skills. Simple effects showed that before the intervention, there were significant differences between the control group and the three intervention groups, whereas after the intervention, there were no significant differences between the control group and the athletics group in terms of self-esteem and social skills, but there were significant differences between the control group and the other two groups. Overall, physical education had a positive impact on self-esteem and social skills of children with intellectual disabilities, with the degree of impact varying from sport to sport.