ACTA FAC MED NAISS 2019;36(2):120-130

Original article

UDC: 796:616-056.34-053.6

DOI: 10.5937/afmnai1902120P

The Effects of Special Sports Games Program on Physical Fitness in Adolescents with Intellectual Disability

Aleksandar Pejčić, Miodrag Kocić, Dragana Berić, Goran Kozomara, Marko Aleksandrović

Faculty of Sport and Physical Education of University of Niš, Niš, Serbia

summary


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 mus-cular endurance, speed and flexibility of the hip. The results of ANOVA and MANOVA indicated that after the implementation of SSGP, there was a sta-tistically 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.

Key words: intellectual disability, physical fitness, adolescents