Participation in physical leisure pursuits and play in children with motor impairments: developing a theory- and evidenc

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Between six and nine percent of children experience problems with their motor abilities (e.g. coordination, balance) and participation in daily life (including taking part in physical leisure pursuits and play). These children are at high risk of long-term health and social difficulties. Appropriate treatments and support potentially have considerable lifetime benefits for these children and their families, and for society more widely.Currently, the help available to these children consists of different kinds of exercises and games recommended by occupational therapists and physiotherapists. There is little research to say whether these actually help the children. Research in other fields has shown that using strategies that support, for example, the person‘s confidence or motivation can make a difference. Although therapists include some of these strategies in the exercises and games already, they do not do this systematically. The proposed project will work with children and their parents, and use two frameworks (from the World Health Organisation and the Medical Research Council) to develop ways to increase children‘s participation in physical leisure pursuits and play in ways acceptable to them. The project will pave the way for future development of non-drug treatments for children.