The Benefits of Sports for Children and Adults with Disabilities
Playing sports can provide a range of benefits for development other than just learning new physical skills. Sport can help develop social, emotional as well as physical skills that can be applied to various facets of life. These same benefits apply to those with disabilities and arguably is even more important in this population as often people with disabilities can be physically delayed/impaired, have more difficulty understanding/managing emotions as well as struggle with social skills and team play.
Some of the physical benefits from playing sport are:
Improves coordination and balance
Reduces risk of obesity
Help build endurance and cardiovascular fitness
Improves gross motor skills (e.g. kicking, catching, throwing, jumping etc.)
Improves strength and power (e.g. able to jump higher, run faster)
Promotes healthy development of bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles
Some of the social benefits from playing sport are:
Building of friendships with teammates/peers
Develops resilience and coping mechanisms (e.g. learning it’s okay to lose)
Improve teamwork and leadership skills amongst peers
Improve communication skills and self-expression
Some of the emotional/mental benefits from playing sport are:
Can help reduce stress and anxiety
Can help to improve creativity and cognitive performance
Can improve mood and mental health
Known to improve sleep quality/patterns
Can improve confidence and self-esteem
The range of benefits of playing sport is extensive but sometimes there can be various barriers for people with disabilities to getting involved. An example of these barriers could be that the participant is physically impaired or has not yet developed the necessary skills to play the sport with their peers. Another example could be that potentially they struggle with emotional regulation and social skills to participate in mainstream sport without additional support.
Although these things can be barriers to those with disabilities in participating in mainstream sports, there are many specialised sporting programs aimed for individuals with disabilities of all different levels and ages.
At One Culture we are very proud of our various sporting programs that we offer for people with disabilities for children as well as adults. We currently offer football, basketball, tennis, oztag, swimming and cricket programs that can be funded affordably through NDIS funding. We provide coaches with disability experience to assist people with disabilities to get involved and promote development.
If disability sport is something that you or someone you know might be interested in please get in touch with us through our website or over the phone and we will be happy to provide some more information to help you get started. To find out more about our Inclusive Sports Programs in SA click on the link here and for NSW sports programs click on the link here.
