Designed game situations enhance fundamental movement skills in children with Down syndrome

Background This study aimed to compare the effects of a designed program based on games situations with those of a conventional one, the Adapted Physical Education (APE) program, on the fundamental movement skills (FMS) in children with Down Syndrome (DS), aged 6 to 10. Methods Twenty-eight children (13 girls and 15 boys; age 8.84 ± 1.06) with DS participated in this study. The participants were divided into two groups as the experimental group (EG) with 13 children (3 girls and 10 boys) and the control group (CG) composed with 15 children (10 girls and 5 boys). The EG participated in a conceived training program based on games situations along 10 weeks, while the CG took part in an APE conventional program based on football, long Jump and sprint adapted exercises. The FMS (locomotor and object control skills) were evaluated using the Gross Motor Development-2 Test at pretraining and posttraining for both groups. Results The results revealed that both programs improve significantly locomotor skills with significantly better improvement in the EG. However, a significant object control skills improvement was observed only among the EG. Conclusions In light of our findings, a training program based on adapted games situations during 10 weeks may be recommended for FMS improvement, specifically object control skills.