American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

Issue: May/June 2010

  Providing Physical Activity  for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: The Motivate, Adapt, and Play  Program
  Kathy Davis, Patricia Hodson, Guili Zhang, Boni  Boswell, & Jim Decker

Abstract: Research  has shown that regular physical activity helps to prevent major health  problems, such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. However, little  research has been conducted on classroom-based physical activity programs for  students with disabilities. In North Carolina, the Healthy Active Children  Policy was implemented in 2006, requiring all K-8 students to achieve 30  minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during every school day. But  no additional resources were allocated to implement the physical activity  requirement for students with disabilities. This article describes the  Motivate, Adapt, and Play (MAP) Program, which was designed to specifically  meet the physical activity needs of students with intellectual disabilities.

Article category: Adapted Physical Education