Effect of Physical Exercise on the Motor Skills Acquisition among Pupils with Intellectual Disability
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Date
2022-10-24
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Abstract
Decrease in physical activities among pupils with intellectual disability has been noted to
affect motor skill acquisition, thus the need to carry out a study on possible ways to improve motor
skill acquisition is necessary, this is the purpose of this study; which is to examine the effect of physical
exercise on motor skills acquisition among pupils with intellectual disability. Three research
hypotheses were posed in this work. A 2x2 pre-post test control group quasi-experimental research
design was used for this study. The population was all students with intellectual disability in Kwara
State as a sample of 40 children from schools located in Ilorin West Local Government Area of the state
were selected through the use of simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for this
study was a researcher’s designed rating scale. The rating scale had two section; section A contains the
demographic information of the respondents such as gender, while section B contains 10 items which
is a 3 likert scale, ranging from always, sometimes and never. The instrument was subjected to face
and content validity by physical education teachers and experts in education. In order to determine
the reliability of the instrument, the instrument was trial-test to 20 respondents who were not part of
the sample size. Data collected were analyzed using frequency count, and percentage for the
demographic information, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for the research
hypotheses. It is revealed that; physical exercise had significant effect on motor skills acquisition
among pupils with intellectual disability, there was no significant effect of physical exercise on motor
skills acquisition among pupils with intellectual disability based on gender and there was no
significant interaction effect of physical exercise and gender on motor skills acquisition among pupils
with intellectual disability. Thus, it can be concluded based on the findings of the study that, physical
activities enhance motor skills acquisition among intellectually disabled pupils. Based on the findings,
the study recommends among others that Sensitization of teachers should be regularly done in order
to inform them of the importance of physical activities on learners with intellectual disability.
Keywords: intellectual disability; physical exercise; motor skills