Sports for Kids with Physical Disabilities
Sometimes exposing a child with disabilities to an everyday sports situation is not ideal. Other children and even adults are not always sensitive to a special needs child, making a traditional sports team a difficult place for the child to excel to his or her full potential.
Benefits
Your special needs child can play one-on-one with children who share more common interests. Additionally, no child has an unfair advantage over another. Besides the environmental benefits of sports designed specifically for disabled children, there are many health benefits as well, such as an increased muscle mass from exercise. In addition, sports teams have the ability to raise a child's self esteem. Flexibility and exercise endurance are two other aspects of physical fitness that a special needs child may improve upon while playing sports. The cardiovascular benefits of sports include an increased lung capacity and improved circulation, which increases the level of oxygen to the brain to promote healthy brain function. Your child also has the potential to improve his or her balance and coordination.
Types
Many programs cater to children with physical disabilities, such as basketball teams. Some communities design games for children to play basketball in wheelchairs. Hockey teams and baseball teams have adapted the same changes. Swimming teams oftentimes create a special program for the physically disabled. This supplies children with a sporting event that offers cardiovascular benefits and an activity that works many muscle groups simultaneously. Tennis and bowling have also morphed into sports for children with special needs.
Major Sporting Events
After a child works hard at a particular sport, he or she may one day become eligible for the Paralympics, an international event to showcase the sports talent of the physically disabled. What started as a small event held for World War II veterans, grew into a large event held every four years for people with cerebral palsy, blindness and even for amputees.