William J. Harvey -SRG 2007
Wilkinson, S., Pressé, C., Joober, R., Grizenko, N.
Français
Physical activity (PA) specialists and parents are important partners for incorporating PA into children’s lives. Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) face many challenges when participating in PA. They present tremendous difficulties to PA professionals who include the children in recreation and physical education sessions. Professionals may feel unprepared to deal with ADHD-related issues. Yet common myths surround ADHD to suggest the opposite. The children are often expected to learn well through “the physical” since they may be assumed to be excellent movers. Hence, PA professionals may suspect the children are lazy or uncooperative if not performing well. Parents of children with ADHD have also recalled poor PA skills for their child but they seem unaffected by the common PA myths. Previous studies, detailing parent perceptions of PA skills and children with ADHD, were retrospective and did not explore the current perceived implications of sport and movement on the life of each child. The purpose of this poster presentation is to provide findings from a qualitative study that explored perspectives of 12 parents about the current PA experiences of their child with ADHD through semi-structured interviews. Relationships between self-determination and child experiences emerged as the parents spoke about PA and links to parenting practices, family relations, social influences, and associated daily challenges. Interrelated themes emerged where parents suggested their children were active most of the time but were not very good in PA, especially in group activities. PA opportunities seemed to be provided to children with ADHD but an overwhelming number of PA constraints emerged across home, school, and community
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