Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of “somatosensory video game” teaching programs on the health-related physical fitness of students with mild intellectual disabilities in junior high school. The video game “active 2 personal trainer” in KinectTM for Xbox 360®was used as our intervention tool. Single-subject research of multi-probes design across behaviors is used in our study. “Somatosensory video game teaching program” was the independent variable and “effects of health-related physical fitness” was the dependent variable. There were 3 participants with mild intellectual disabilities selected to join the training program. The duration of training was sustained for 24 weeks with 3 times in a week. Each time was carried out for 50 minutes in average.

The results were analyzed with Visual analysis and Tryon’s C statistics. The major results were shown as below:
1. The teaching program could significantly promote the flexibility, muscle strength, muscle endurance, muscle power and cardiopulmonary function of students with mild intellectual disabilities in junior high school.
2. The feedbacks to the programs from both intellectual disabilities students and special education teachers in junior high school were positive.

Finally, according to the results, teaching programs with somatosensory video game could provide another choice for the physical education of students with intellectual disabilities. Our result might also be considered in the future education or research.

Keywords:

Somatosensory video game, intellectual disabilities junior high school student, health-related physical fitness, Xbox 360.