Background and Objective: Children with intellectual impairment (II) show poor motor skills due to their low cognitive abilities. Considering the impact of participation in physical activities, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect and durability of exercises and games on fundamental motor skills (FMS) of II children.
Methods: This randomized controlled study assessed 60 boys with mild II in three groups, exercises (aerobics and resistance), sports games (basketball and futsal), and control (in eight weeks), using the TGMD-2. The TGMD consisted of 12 FMS. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA, repeated measures, Bonferroni and T-tests in SPSS at the significance level of P<0.05.
Findings: In boys with mild II (mean age= 9.80±1.15 years), there were significant differences in the "intergroup" between the intervention and control groups in motor competence, locomotor skills (running, hopping, leaping, jumping and sliding) and object control (throwing and rolling) at post-test (P=0.001) and follow-up (P<0.05). There were significant differences between all groups in hitting in the post-test and in the follow-up examination (P<0.05). In the "intragroup", there were significant differences in all variables in the exercises and games during the pre-test and post-test, the pre-test and follow-up (except the gallop) and the post-test and follow-up (P=0.001).
Conclusion: This study revealed the positive effect of the interventions on most of FMS variables, and the sports game group performing better. Due to the modality of the physical activity interventions, the integration of these two types of interventions may show a better effect.