LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Seaman, Roxanne

Acadia University

Bachelor of Kinesiology

Honours

Kinesiology

Kinesiology

Only nine percent of Canadian youth are currently meeting the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. This number only drops for children with disabilities due to their predisposed difficulties with motor skills and coordination. This study sought out to determine the feasibility of the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (CAPL) for children with disabilities. Eleven participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Down Syndrome (DS) and Global Developmental Delay (GDD) underwent the CAPL testing alongside two typically developing participants. The participants completed the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run, the Canadian Agility and Movement Skill Assessment and the plank assessment of torso strength in order to determine their physical competence domain score. A qualitative case study approach was utilized to conduct a thematic analysis which highlighted themes within the data. These included adaptations that could be made to the CAPL protocol based on the considerations of Cairney et al.’s (2019) holistic approach to physical literacy in the cognitive, affective and physical domains. More specifically, the results showed that all participants who had their domain score calculated were placed in the beginning category based on the CAPL standards. It also showed that the participants with disabilities had difficulties concentrating on multi step instructions, the DS group displayed hypotonia on the sit and reach task, the participants had difficulties withthe timing factor of the tasks and that the CAPL testing protocol did not fulfill their three innate psychological needs which in turn impacted their engagement in the tasks. Given these results, it can be suggested that adaptations should be made to the protocol to individualize the testing procedure to allow each child to experience success. In conclusion, this study determined that physical literacy testing is feasible for children with varying disabilities when modifications are in place to meet their unique needs.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3451