Social Behavior in Children of Special Olympics and Non-sporty Children with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Introduction There is a lack of longitudinal research in the field of social behavior in children with intellectual disability (ID). The first goal of the research was to find out and compare the social behavior of children who regularly participating in Special Olympics (SO) competitions with non-sporty children. The second goal was to show the trend in the development of children's social behavior and to find out whether summer holidays have any effect on children's behavior.   Methods The Reiss Screen Behavior questionnaire was used to determine social behavior. Participants were children with ID aged 6 - 20 years. A total of 4 measurements were performed over a two year period (the number of SO participants was n = 14, n = 18, n = 18, n = 13 and the number of non-sporty children was n = 42, n = 40, n = 39, n = 40).   Results Participants in SO have better social behavior by up to 16 % compared to non-sporty children. The trend of development in social behavior is unbalanced among SO participants, and summer holidays cause improvements in their behavior. Non-sporty children have a convex trend in social behavior and summer holidays have no effect on their behavior.   Conclusion In SO participants, social behavior differs by 0-9 % from the norm of ideal social behavior. In non-sporty children, social behavior differs by 5-25 % from the norm. Overall, the behavior of children with ID is very good, as it differs very little from the norm of ideal social behavior. In the Czech Republic, children with ID (participants in SO and non-sporty children) have much better social behavior than children with ID abroad.