The effects of basketball training on the maladaptive behaviors of trainable mentally retarded children.
Seven weeks of Special Olympics basketball lowered maladaptive behaviors in kids with intellectual disability and the change lasted a month.
01Research in Context
What this study did
O'Reilly (1997) ran a seven-week Special Olympics basketball program for kids with intellectual disability.
Teachers and parents filled out behavior checklists before, after, and one month later.
No control group was used, so the study is quasi-experimental.
What they found
Maladaptive behaviors dropped at school and at home right after the season.
The gains were still there four weeks later, showing the change stuck.
How this fits with other research
Baran et al. (2013) and Lerner et al. (2012) ran eight-week Special Olympics soccer programs and saw the same pattern: medium cuts in problem behaviors plus social boosts.
Northrup et al. (2022) stretched the idea to sixteen-week adapted soccer for teens with Down syndrome and again found medium psychosocial gains, proving the sport, not the ball, drives the change.
Sosnowski et al. (2022) moved the model to adults and swapped the outcome: instead of fewer behaviors, adults gained large fitness benefits, showing basketball helps different age groups in different ways.
Why it matters
You do not need a fancy clinic to cut problem behaviors. A volunteer-led basketball season can do it.
If you serve middle-schoolers with ID, link up with Special Olympics or run your own lunchtime league.
Track behaviors for a month after the last game; the study says the dip should hold.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effects of basketball training on the maladaptive behaviors of 19 trainable mentally retarded children attending a special state school were investigated. Children in the experimental group took 7 weeks of basketball training (Special Olympics Inc.) designed for mentally retarded children, whereas the control group children engaged in free play activities with the ball. Both groups were assessed before the training and free play activity applications (preassessment), immediately after the applications (postassessment) and 30 days after the applications (follow-up assessment). All the children were observed (Classroom Behavior Checklist developed for this study) in their classroom during the academic tasks in which they were involved. Furthermore, their mothers were interviewed to get information about manifested maladaptive behaviors at home. To assess the children's level of improvement in basketball skills, the Sports Skills Assessment was utilized. Children trained in basketball skills showed a reduction in their level of maladaptive behavior both at home and in the school. This reduction was maintained in the follow-up period. Thus, basketball training can be proposed as an effective and practical rehabilitation program for trainable mentally retarded children attending an institution.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1997 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(96)00029-7