People with Intellectual Disabilities, Their Physical Fitness, Assessment of Fitness and Interventions / Physical Activity

Abstract

It is well and consistently documented that persons withintellectual disability (ID) are less fit than their peers with- out a disability and that fitness levels are generally low.Assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness is of primary concern in the development and monitoring of program effectiveness. However, instrumentation validity, reliabilityand feasibility are questioned due to the indiscriminateuse of various protocols in assessing persons with ID. Certain problematic issues, due to psychological and sociological learning characteristics of many persons with ID, impede what is perceived as basic protocol in the assess- ment of cardiorespiratory fitness. These methodologicalissues have created concerns regarding the validity andreliability of previous descriptive research and generatedthe need for more research work. This presentation reviews previous research, identifies protocol modificationsand discusses about problems in assessment when testingpersons with ID. The discussion is directed to both field- testing methods as well as laboratory procedures. Guidelines for planning interventions are suggested.