Effect of yoga on health related physical fitness and psycho-motor ability in children with intellectual disability

Abstract

Background: For children with intellectual disability (ID), fitness and overall newlinefunctioning is lower as they are not active during the course of school days and have newlineless opportunities to participate in physical activities available to their peers. Moreover, newlinethey show disorders at perceptive-motor development and coordination levels. As newlinecompared to other groups with disabilities, these individuals have more functional newlinelimitations in an adaptive behavior and motor function. newlineAim: The aim of the present study is to assess an outcome of yoga practices on healthrelated physical fitness and psycho-motor performance in intellectually disabled newlinechildren. newlineMethods: A Quasi experimental pre-post- design has been used for conducting this newlineresearch study. The purposive sample is randomly assigned into the experimental group newline(n = 35; 24 male and 11 female, age group mean ±SD; 12.37±1.43 years) and the control newline(n = 35; 19 male and 16 female, age group mean ±SD; 13.0±1.7 years) group by making newlinethe use of table random numbers. Both the experimental and control groups were newlineassessed on the first day and after 12 weeks of the interventions for health-related newlinephysical fitness, static balance, eye hand co-ordination, agility and reaction time by newlineusing standardized tests. The subjects of the experimental group then underwent a newlinetraining of yoga practices, under the supervision of a yoga expert for one hour in newlineevenings, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays for a total period of 12 weeks. newlineThe control group did not undergo any yoga training during this period. However, both newlinethe groups continued to participate in their regular extra-curricular activities during newlineschool hours. There were 35 subjects in each group at the baseline testing. However, at newlinethe end of 12 weeks, there were 32 subjects in the experimental group and 29 subjects in the control group because of nine drop-outs. The drop-outs were due to reasons like newlinedisinterest, illness and absence during either the pre-test or post-test. newlineResults: Health Related Physical Fitness: