Beliefs about Physical Activity among Children who are Visually Impaired and their Parents

Abstract

This survey of 25 visually impaired children aged 10–12 and their parents investigated the value the parents placed on their children's physical activity and the barriers to physical activity that the children faced. The results revealed that as vision loss increased, parents’ expectations for their children's ability to be physically active decreased, as did the children's views that physical activity is important or useful.

Physical Activity and School-Age Individuals With Visual Impairments: A Literature Review

“…These findings agree with the Skaggs and Hopper (1996) review in regard to physical fitness, as well as the Houwen et al (2009) review in regard to motor performance. The current review reports a number of studies where perceptions of barriers to participate in physical activities include not having appropriate opportunities to participate (Perkins et al, 2013;Stuart et al, 2006;Ward et al, 2011) and teachers not having appropriate training .…”

“…The number of studies exceeds 18 because several studies had multiple dependent variables. For example, Stuart et al (2006) measured both students' and parents' perceptions of physical activity participation.…”

“…Male with low vision had less PA time than sighted peers. Stuart et al (2006) Parents of children (completely blind) reported fear of injury, lack of available activities, inability of physical educators to include children who were blind, lack of transportation, inability to see instructions.…”

Parents’ Beliefs and Intentions Toward Supporting Physical Activity Participation for Their Children With Disabilities

“…Several researchers (An & Goodwin, 2007;Law, Petrenchik, King, & Hurley, 2007;Roh & Oh, 2003) emphasized importance of parental support for physical activity participation in CWD. Some studies reported positive parental perceptions on the value of physical activity for their children with congenital heart disease (Moola, Faulkner, Kirsh, & Kilburn, 2008) and with visual impairments and blindness (Stuart, Lieberman, & Hand, 2006). However, limited research is available about whether parental beliefs and intentions are related to their actual behavior to support physical activity participation of their CWD and what factors affect (facilitate or limit) parental support.…”

Real-time sensory substitution to enable players who are blind to play video games using whole body gestures

“…Despite their appeal to non-traditional gamers, gesture-based video games are inaccessible to players who are blind as they require the player to perceive visual cues that indicate what gesture to provide and when. Access to gesture based games, exergames in particular, could create new exercise [13,14] and socialization opportunities for users who are blind, which is important as: (1) they suffer from higher levels of obesity due to fewer opportunities to be physically active [11]; and (2) users who are blind are often isolated and lonely [19].…”