Sports and Special Ed

Brian Fisher

October 10, 2006

Effects of a Sports Camp Practicum on Attitudes Toward Children With Visual Impairments and Deafblindness

By Lauren Lieberman and Sandy Wilson

Rehabilitation Education for Blindness and Visual Impairment v36 n4 p141

Published: Winter 2005

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the attitudes of "preservice teachers" regarding their ability to teach visually impaired or deafblind students change as a result of a one week practicum at a developmental sports camp. The goals of the authors were to find out whether or not this program would increase the attitudes of the teachers and also whether university status (graduate or undergraduate) or sex would make a difference. Lieberman and Wilson performed this study on 27 university students (physical education majors) from eight different universities in the eastern United States. Of these participants, there were 16 undergraduate students and 11 graduate students (16 men and 11 women total). Prior to participating in the study, the students responded to seven statements given to them by questionnaire. The statements asked students to rate their confidence in the following areas: in teaching children with visual impairments, knowledge of the disabilities, understanding of the sports offered to these students, knowledge of adapting activities, skills in behavior modification, guiding techniques, and knowledge of assistive devices. The participants were given five answer options (based on a 5-point Likert-type scale) that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree. After a one day orientation about visual impairment and developmentally appropriate activities, the students were placed with a child in a one-on-one situation. Throughout the week, the student and the camper worked together for both morning and afternoon sports sessions (3 hours each) and again for a two hour recreation period in the evening. They were also responsible for any extra help that the camper needed.

After the sports camp ended, the students were asked to re-take the survey that they had taken a week earlier. Lieberman and Wilson discovered that the attitudes of every student increased in all areas and that