VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 4
deafblindness than others making it hard to compare across findings. Additionally,
deafblindness includes a wide variety of diagnoses therefore some children who
are deafblind have minor hearing and visual impairments whereas others might be
completely deaf and blind. Some of the studies reviewed had participants with
other disabilities such as cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorder. The studies
mainly compared youth with deafblindness to other youth without deafblindness or
any disabilities and the results of the studies were conclusive that the children
without deafblindness have higher motor competence.
Finally, it should be noted that two of the ten studies were conducted at
Camp Abilities, a one-week sports camp for youth with visual impairments. This
camp provides youth with vision impairments and/or deafblindness an opportunity
to participate in various physical activities. This camp is only offered to a small
number of youth and therefore the sample sizes for the two studies were small and
therefore not very generalizable.
Conclusion
The findings from this scoping review reveal very limited work in the area
of physical activity and deafblindness. Much of the research conducted on youth
with deafblindness has focused on youth with CHARGE syndrome and on
assessments of FMS and balance. Findings revealed lower motor competence and
balance in youth with deafblindness with age of independent walking and other
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