Abstract:

Objective To analyze the effect of physical activity in an adaptive physical education program on the psychomotor development of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the school setting.
Methods Literature related to adaptive physical education programs and psychomotor development for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities were retrieved from EBSCO, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and CNKI, from the establishment of the library to May, 2023, and systematically reviewed.
Results Seven English literatures of randomized controlled trials were included, from four countries, involving 236 subjects, aged six to 18 years. The main sources were journals in the fields of sport and psychomotor, developmental disorders, adapted physical education, and children's psychomotor, with publication dates centered after 2016. Physical activity components of adaptive physical education programs in school settings primarily included muscle and balance training, perceptual-motor training, walking up and down stairs, aerobic exercise using equipment (e.g., treadmills, steppers, cross-trainers, and stationary bikes), sit-ups, jumping exercises, rhythmic activities, simultaneous static and dynamic balancing activities while focusing on visual inputs, changing positions at different rhythms and moving through space, breathing and stretching exercises, adapted table tennis motor skill training, ball control exercises, and hand-eye coordination exercises, with an intervention of light-moderate intensity, 45 to 60 minutes a time, one to five times a week, for eight to 24 weeks. The health benefit maily included the enhancement of rhythmic perception as well as the improvement of integrated visual, auditory, and tactile perception; improving muscular strength and endurance, total locomotor capacity and fine-motor capacity such as fine-motor integration, running speed and agility, and balance; improving physical flexibility and coordination, such as upper limb coordination, static balance, strength and flexibility; improvement of correct response, sustained response, and theoretical level of reactivity, and motor flexibility and agility; significant improvements in self-care (eating, dressing, and self-direction), increasing in the number of sit-ups to standard, increasing success in jumping for a ball, and improving motor skill proficiency and executive functioning.
Conclusion This systematic review constructed a PICO for the psychomotor development of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities participating in physical activity in the school setting with an adaptive physical education program based on the PRISMA guidelines. The adaptive physical education program may promote psychomotor development in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in five main areas: perception, motor control, coordination, reaction time, and movement planning and execution.

Key words: intellectual and developmental disabilities, children, adapted sports courses, psychomotor development, systematic review