Exploring the Impact and Feasibility of a Pathway to Sport and Long-term Participation in Young People

Summary

The importance of play and physical activity include its many benefits on positively improving health and well-being, enhancing children's and young people's thinking and performance in school, improving their sleep and enabling confidence and skill building (Janssen and LeBlanc, 2010; Budde et al., 2008; Sallis and Patrick, 1994). However, children with movement difficulties (MD) and physical disabilities are at risk of decreased physical activity and subsequently decreased physical fitness and overall health and well-being as a result. To build upon current findings and to follow-up on a continuing study, looking at the impact (responses) and recovery during and following acute exercise at different intensities in children and adolescents with and without movement difficulties, this next phase aims to provide an intervention to improve fitness levels and health measures and to strategically provide a pathway for longer term participation in physical activity in young people. Implement and evaluate a pathway to sport for 14+ year old young people who do not regularly participate in sport due to Neurodevelopmental conditions, young people presenting with poor coordination and movement, and even children and adolescents with special educational needs. The pathway hopes to promote engagement, participation, inclusion and confidence (EPIC) in sport within local schools and the community through 1) targeted recruitment, 2) confidence and skill building (EPIC Club), 3) connection to sport ('Have a go days') and 4) exit to long term participation.

Conditions

• Dyspraxia

Interventions

OTHER

EPIC Club

Weekly exercise gym sessions (1-2 times weekly) for 45-60 mins each session. Participants will start with a warm-up of 30 mins cardiovascular training either doing cycling, treadmill running or cross-training. The remainder of the session consists of strength/resistance and weight-training involving leg press, leg extensor, pull downs, kettle bells, dumbbells. Gym sessions aim to involve bursts of high-intensity and monitoring of heart rate (potentially with wrist activity monitors with heart rate monitoring and accelerometers) to identify level of physical activity intensity. Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in 'Have a go' sports days run by the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sport England

  collaborator OTHER

• Oxfordshire Sports Partnership

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Oxford Brookes University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Helen Dawes, Professor · Oxford Brookes University

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-03-31

Primary Completion

2018-06-30

Completion

2018-06-30

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations