Effects of awareness interventions on children's attitudes toward peers with a visual impairment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of two awareness programs (6-day vs. 1-day programs) on children's attitudes toward peers with a visual impairment. Three hundred and forty-four Spanish physical education students (164 girls and 180 boys) aged 10-15 years, took part in the study. A modified version of the Attitudes Toward Disability Questionnaire (ATDQ) was used, which includes three sub-scales: (i) cognitive perceptions, (ii) emotional perception, and (iii) behavioral readiness to interact with children with disabilities. The questionnaire was filled out during the regular physical education class before and immediately after the awareness activity. The 6-day didactical unit included a lecture on visual impairments and a video describing visual impairments and the game of 5-a-side soccer (first lesson), sensibilization activities toward visual impairment (second and third lessons), training and competitive 5-a-side soccer tasks using blindfolded goggles (fourth and fifth lessons), and a sport show and chat with soccer players with a visual impairment (sixth lesson). The 1-day awareness unit only included the final session of the didactical activity. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant time effects in the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral subscales. Sex also was found to demonstrate significant effects, in which women showed more favorable results than men. A time-by-group intervention effect was only demonstrated in the cognitive sub-scale, and the 6-day didactic intervention was more effective than the 1-day awareness unit.

Diseño y aplicación de un programa de intervención de práctica deportiva inclusiva y su efecto sobre la actitud hacia la discapacidad: El Campus Inclusivo de Baloncesto. (Design and implementation of an intervention program of inclusive sport and its effect on attitudes toward disability: The Inclusive Basketball Campus).

“…For this purpose, the Inclusive Basketball Campus was implemented, organized by the Real Madrid Foundation, where basketball as inclusive sport provides a context for normalizing practice, since this activity is attended by participants with and without physical disabilities. The study design was experimental, using the "Survey of attitudes towards people with disabilities" (Reina, López, Jiménez, García-Calvo & Hutzler, 2011) applying it before intervention, just after intervention and 9 months later on a sample of 21 participants without disabilities (17 males and 4 females) aged between 8 and 14. Wilcoxon and ANOVA´s repeated measures tests were applied, setting the confidence level at p≤0.05.…”

"Deporte inclusivo en la escuela": diseño y análisis de un programa de intervencion para promover la inclusión del alumnado con discapacidad en Educación Física

“…Por otra parte, un conjunto de investigaciones se han planteado conocer y evaluar las actitudes e intenciones de los docentes hacia la inclusión de alumnos con discapacidad en sus clases (Casebolt y Hodge, 2010;Fournidou, Kudláček, y Evagellinou, 2011;Gorozidis y Papaioannou, 2011;Hodge, Ammah, Casebolt, Lamaster, y O'Sullivan, 2004;Jeong y Block, 2011;Kudláček et al, 2007;Oh et al, 2010;Petkova, Kudlácek, y Nikolova, 2012;Qi y Ching, 2012; Samalot-Rivera y Hodge, 2013; o Reina et al (2011) desarrollaron dos intervenciones con una duración muy diferente: la primera de 6 días de duración, y la segunda de 1 solo día.…”

“…Otros autores han focalizado sus estudios en medir la actitud de los alumnos sin discapacidad tras las intervenciones propuestas (Block, 1995;Duchane y French, 1998;Kalyva y Agaliotis, 2013;Özer et al, 2012;Reina et al, 2011;Slininger et al, 2000;Van Biesen et al, 2006;Verderber, Rizzo, y Sherrill, 2003), obteniendo resultados positivos, describiendo incluso interacciones con compañeros con discapacidad agradables, amables y respetuosas (Block y Vogler, 1994;Block y Zeman, 1996;Obrusníková et al, 2003).…”

“…Respecto al género, parece haber un claro acuerdo en que las chicas muestran actitudes más positivas que los chicos (Block, 1995;de Laat et al, 2013;Laws y Kelly, 2005;Loovis y Loovis, 1997;Nowicki, 2006;Reina et al, 2011;Siperstein et al, 2007;Slininger et al, 2000;Tripp et al, 1995;Vignes et al, 2009). Otros autores sin embargo, no encontraron diferencias significativas en cuanto al género (Panagiotou, Evaggelinou, Doulkeridou, Mouratidou, y Koidou, 2008).…”

“…información, CD y simulación de la discapacidad (Ison et al, 2010;Krahé y Altwasser, 2006;Liu et al, 2010;Lockhart et al, 1998;Reina et al, 2011;Xafopoulos et al, 2009). La ventaja de utilizar esta combinación es que nos permite obtener una triple perspectiva de la discapacidad: la información nos aporta los conceptos y sus características; la simulación, las sensaciones; y el CD, la experiencia directa con las personas con discapacidad.…”