Preferences and reasons for the lack of interest of Czech teenagers with sensory disabilities in physical education classes

Dagmar Nemcek,Petra Kurkova

doi:10.16926/par.2018.06.22

Abstract

Preferences and reasons for the lack of interest of Czech teenagers with sensory disabilities in physical education classes

Highlights

Individuals with sensory disabilities may be disadvantaged in terms of health and participation in beneficial physical activities compared to the majority of society due to their limited sensory perception [1,2,3]
In terms of demographic data, a statistically significant difference between teenagers who are deaf or hard of hearing and teenagers with a visual impairment was found in the time of onset/diagnosis of the disability
Preferences in physical activities A statistically significant difference was only found in the preferences for the various activities in PE classes (Table 2). 41.7% of teenagers who are deaf or hard of hearing wish to do athletic disciplines in physical education; among teenagers with a visual impairment, only 15.4% of the respondents indicated interest in athletics (n = 10; 26.9%; n = 4 p = 0.039)

Summary

Introduction

Individuals with sensory disabilities may be disadvantaged in terms of health and participation in beneficial physical activities compared to the majority of society due to their limited sensory perception [1,2,3]. Young people with a visual impairment have a significantly lower level of habitual physical activity than their non-disabled peers and there are more obstacles to prevent it from happening. While the schools especially established for students with sensory disabilities feature the possibility of accommodation in a hostel and provide quality leisure time management for the students, schools in mainstream education have other positives, the main one being the close proximity to the student’s home [9]. Research has demonstrated that responsible and concentrated programming of physical education (PE) classes can help develop fundamental motor and balance skills needed for students with sensory disabilities to maintain a physically active lifestyle [10,11,12]. Research focusing on the PE experiences of teenagers with sensory disabilities, has focused on the different topics, such as parents [13,14,15,16], typically developing peers [17,18], PE teachers [14, 19,20,21] or para/deaf professionals [22,23]

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Conclusion