Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Children with disabilities are often more sedentary, involved in fewer social activities, and move less compared to age-matched peers. Additionally, they often are at higher risk for other health conditions, which can contribute to a more inactive lifestyle and overall less socialization. Specialized and adaptive community-based fitness programs for children with disabilities exist but are scarce, and they are often limited by accessible space, transportation, cost, and training of community staff to work safely with children with disabilities. Physical therapists have the expertise to advise and collaborate with children with disabilities, their families, schools, community members and local organizations on how to adapt, modify or create individualized programs to promote fitness, health and wellness. Community organizations have the expertise to develop camp programs, hire staff and provide scholarship opportunities for children to participate but are often lacking training on how to work with children with disabilities or inclusive ideas on ways to promote fitness into their camps. The purpose of this poster is to describe a successful collaboration between an academic physical therapy program and a local community organization to create an inclusive, community-based fitness class for children & adolescents with disabilities.