VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 4
Children given the opportunities and modified resources to participate in physical
activity can improve their motor skills. Encouragement and opportunities can also
increase children's confidence and might help further motivate them to participate
in physical activity.
The environment itself is very important to the success of children with
deafblindness during physical activity. Arndt et al. (2005) and Lieberman et al.
(2006) interviewed seven children with deafblindness who were at Camp Abilities,
a camp that promotes physical activity for children with vision impairments and/or
deafblind and learned the children performed better in comfortable environments.
A comfortable environment was described as a place that has familiar people such
as a caretaker, family member, or trusted individual who can support them through
the activity. Another key takeaway from the interviews was that the children felt
more confident and comfortable with certain physical activities when they had time
to explore and familiarize themselves with the environment. This is especially
important to individuals with visual impairments because they can't always see the
equipment they are using. Most of the youth with sensory impairments reported
that they felt more comfortable when they were given time to touch the equipment
and familiarize themselves with the environment before doing the physical activity.
It is important to allow time for youth with deafblindness to spend time learning
and preparing for physical activity before participating in it (Brum et al., 2024).
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