INTELLECTUALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN Vs. THEIR MOTOR ABILITIES

*Irena Momola, Agnieszka Szybisty

Summary
Aim. More severe mental handicaps such as mild, severe and profound mental handicap, although perceived early in children’s development, cause in most cases psychomotor development disorders and difficulties in adjusting to society. Purpose of this work is to present morphological and physical development of a group of 12-18 year old children with mild and severe intellectual handicap. Presented dimorphic differences in motor development level will help to understand an intellectually handicapped child and should allow adjusting the requirements to its motor abilities.
Material and methods. Material for the research was formed of 201 intellectually handicapped children, aged 12-18 years-old originating from Polish part of Carpathian Euroregion. The survey explored morphological characteristics and motor abilities with Eurofit Special Test.
Results. Motor skills level depends on sex and level of mental handicap. Boys in average have better motor skills, which are confirmed by better and higher results in physical fitness. Sex does not differentiate flexibility and similar results were found regardless of intellectual handicap level. The biggest difference in moderately handicapped boys’ motor possibilities was observed in upper limbs strength, abdominal muscles strength endurance. As for girls, biggest differences were found in explosive strength of lower limbs.
Conclusions. It was demonstrated that children with mild and severe handicap aren’t deprived of motor abilities. These abilities should be extended to improve handicapped people self-acceptance and better life in society.

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