Socialization of Disabled People with Sports Activities and Their Problem Encountered in Participating in Sports Activities

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the encountered problems of people with disabilities who live in Malatya and participate in sportive activities the aged 10-15 years. For this purpose, a total of 35 parents of individuals 11 diagnosed with autism, 6 diagnosed with physical disability, 10 diagnosed with Down’s syndrome and 8 diagnosed with mild mental disability participated in the study. This study was a qualitative study and it was provided that face-to-face interviews with parents of disabled individuals were made, considering that disabled people would not be able to give correctly answers. In the process of obtaining the data, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with the parents through semi-structured open-ended questions. Parents of people with Down's syndrome and mild mental disability have expressed a positive view of the fitness of sports facilities, while the parents of autistic and physically handicapped individuals indicate that their facilities and equipment are insufficient. In addition, all parents have expressed that their children willingness to participate in sports activities but they stated that the trainers were inadequate in terms of knowledge, competence and equipment. As a result, the parents are satisfied with participation of their children with disability in sports activities and they are socialized with sports, there are positive changes in their clothing, walking and talking, the facilities are partly sufficient but children’s coaches are inadequate knowledge, experience and equipment, suffer from the communication problems with the municipality staff in the vehicle when traveling.