Historically, the teachers, researchers and caregivers of mentally retarded children and adults paid their attention to intellectual development, while the role of physical fitness stayed uncertain. The interest in recreation activity has been increased in 1990s however, the practitioners are still reluctant to use fitness programs in their students’ curricula, although motor skills development had been emphasized.

Researchers Drs Cabler-Halle, James W. Halle, and Barry Chung at the University of Illinois in their review tried to find causal relationships between aerobic fitness and improvements in mental, emotional, ans social scores of retarded children and adults.

They examines (1) the effects of aerobic exercise on intellectual, behavioral, and self-conceptual changes in persons with mental retardation and comcludes that in spite of many methodical flaus and insufficiant statistical data, a clear effect of improvement was observed — often immediately — after aerovic exercising for as little as 10 minutes or as long as 2 hours. Few data have been reported positive effects of aerobic exercise on IQ scores. It’s been suggested (2) that children with developmental delays are more sensitive to the effects of interventions designed to affect mental function than individuals who are not developmentally delayed

The authors concluded “Perhaps physical fitness programming for those with developmenral disabilities would have wider appeal and application if it were embedded in the bTOadeT contexl of psychological and behavioral change (i.e., engagement in exercise produces generalized changes beyond direct improvement in physical well-being).”

Sources:

1. Res Devel Disabil Vol. 14, pp. 359-386, 1993

2. Educ Psychol Rev (2008) 20:111–131