A Fitness Assessment System for Individuals with Severe Mental Retardation

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of fitness assessment for use with individuals who are severely mentally retarded. An overview of The Ohio State University’s Project Transition is accompanied by a detailed review of its assessment system with a particular emphasis upon scoring. Some notable features of the system are contrasted with those of the three related published assessment systems in physical education. The most significant characteristic of the Project Transition assessment system is its score sheet, which yields specific information related to percentage of task completion, level of prompting required for subtasks, whole skill performance, task-analyzed step descriptions, and reinforcement strategy. Assessment systems for individuals who are severely handicapped rarely provide all of these measures. An assessment system of this type is claimed to be useful for both the practitioner and the researcher.

Reliability of Field Based Cardiovascular Fitness Running Tests for Individuals with Mental Retardation

“…Individuals with mental retardation are generally lower in measures of cardiovascular fitness than their intellectually normal peers (Fernall, Tymeson, & Webster, 1988). This has been substantiated in several research studies investigating the effect of training on severely and profoundly mentally retarded populations (Jansma, Ersing, & McCubbin, 1988;Mulholland & McNeill, 1985;Tomporowski & Jameson, 1985). The mixed results for improving functional performance in these investigations is in part due to variations in testing methodology as well as to heterogeneity in this population, even with high functioning individuals (Seidl, Reid, & Montgomery, 1987).…”

Training Support Personnel for Inclusive Physical Education

“…Others suggest that prompting levels, roles and responsibilities, and classroom management are vital components to include in any training protocol in order for paraprofessionals and volunteers to work effectively in inclusive physical education environments (Jansma, McCubbin, Combs, Decker, & Ersing 1988;Vogler, et aI., 1989;Dunn, et aI., 1985). Four areas in which support personnel should receive training are: (1) knowledge of the disability, (2) prompting levels, (3) classroom management, and (4) specific roles and responsibilities.…”