The effect of gender and level of vision on the physical activity level of children and adolescents with visual impairment.

Aslan et al. (2012) tracked how much kids with visual impairment move each day. They split the group by gender and by how much vision each child had. Then they counted mild, moderate, and vigorous activity for seven days.

Almost no child reached the vigorous level, no matter the vision or gender. Boys with some usable vision did more light and moderate activity than girls or totally blind peers. Still, the overall picture was low activity across the board.

Whitehouse et al. (2013) helps explain why: blind kids scored far below sighted peers on running, leaping, kicking, and catching. If you cannot run or kick, vigorous play is hard. Schott et al. (2021) adds another layer—visually impaired youth also struggle to picture body movements in their mind. Poor motor imagery may slow skill learning and keep activity low.

O'Dwyer et al. (2018) offers hope. A 12-week family-centred goal program in a community sports centre pushed kids with mixed disabilities into more moderate-to-vigorous play. The low-vision group in Aslan et al. (2012) could benefit from the same approach.

Ku et al. (2020) reminds us to bring parents in. A review found that when parents join the activity and tell the child it matters, activity goes up. Parent exercise habits alone did not help; active participation did.

When you write a plan for a child with visual impairment, set the first goal at mild or moderate intensity, not vigorous. Add parent and sibling to the session so they learn how to guide and cheer. Target the skills Whitehouse et al. (2013) flagged—running, leaping, kicking, catching—because once the child can do them, vigorous minutes will follow. Use body-mapping games from Schott et al. (2021) to build motor imagery. Track minutes with a simple step counter and celebrate small gains so the family stays engaged.