VOLUME 1,ISSUE 1 Page 106
EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL
EDUCATION
AND SPORTS PROGRAM
ON DEAF
PUPILS HEAL TH-RELA TED
FITNESS: A CASE OF KAAGA
SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
R. H. Nkatha
Leisure and Recreation Department
Kenyatta University
P.O. Box 43844
Nairobi
Abstract
In t
h
is s
tud
y, t
h
e
he
alth
-r
ela
t
ed f
i
t
n
ess levels of t
h
e
de
afprimar
y s
chool pup
i
ls who pa
r
t
ic
ipated
i
n an
eig
htwe
e
k Phy
s
ical
E
ducati
o
n a
nd S
por
t
s pr
o
gram
we
r
e
mea
s
ured u
s
ing
t
h
e A
m
e
ri
c
an Allianc
e
for
He
alth
,
Ph
ys
ical
E
du
c
a
ti
on
,
D
ance and Re
c
reation
P
h
ysi
c
a
lB
es
t Te
st
.
Kaaga
Sc
hool for
t
h
e
Deaf wa
s
p
urposely selected for
the study
.
The sample
c
omprisedpupils in
c
la
s
se
s
five
, s
ix
a
nd
s
e
v
en. A
p
r
e
- and po
s
t-t
est design was us
e
d A p
r
e
-
test was
car
ried
o
u
t tw
o
weeks
a
ft
e
r o
peni
ng school and a
post
-te
s
t
eig
h
t weeks
lat
e
r
,
a
t
the
end of t
h
e
t
r
e
a
t
men
t
p
e
r
i
od
The depende
n
t va
r
iables included
low
ba
c
k
f
l
exi
b
i
li
ty, a
bdomi
na
l
str
eng
t
h
-
endura
n
c
e,
ca
rdiore
s
p
i
ratory enduranc
e
, percent body fat an
d
I
u
pperbody strength
-
enduran
c
e
.
Thefindings
o
n
t
he
h
e
al
t
h-related fitnes
s
st
atu
s
of the partici
p
ant
s
s
ho
w
ed
t
hat the
y
ha
d
a lower fitness le
v
el dur
i
ng
p
re-
tes
t
as c
ompare
d t
o po
s
t-test
.
Th
e s
tudy also
es
tabl
i
shedthat in cardiorespira
t
or
y
endurance and
a
bdominal strength-endurance,
boys performed
be
tter than girl
s
. In low back flexibil
i
ty
,
both girls
a
nd bo
y
s demon
s
trated an improvement at all age
s.
Re
sult
s
sha
w
that the deaf
c
hildren
'
s health- related
fi
tne
ss
i
s
"
i
m
p
ro
ve
d b
y
the Physi
c
al
E
ducation an
d
S
port
s
Program
a
n
d in
d
i
cates tha
t
th
e
program
c
ould be us
e
d for th
e
purpo
s
e
s
of
e
nh
a
n
c
ing th
e
d
eaf children
'
s health statu
s
at all le
v
els of the
e
ducations
y
stem.
Key Words:
Deafness
,
Health-related
fitness
l
evels,Physical Education and Sports Program
Introduction
P
hys
i
calfitness is a state of well-being that allows
p
eopleto perform dail
y
acti
vi
ties with vigor
,
reduce
the hypokinetic problems and establish a fitne
s
s
base for participation in a variety of physical
activities (Safrit and Wood
,
1995)
.
Health fitnessis
important for all indiv
i
duals throughout
t
he
i
r
lifespan
and
should
be
developed
in allpopulations
.
F
i
tness a
lso
,
is
a
s
ocial-cultural
p
henomenon
(
S
h
e
rill
,
1993).
So
c
ieta
l
e
x
pectat
i
on
s
p
artly
determ
i
ne
f
itness asp
i
rations for various people
.
Persons with disabilities and health impairment
s
have
t
o wor
k
harder at
fi
tness than their able peers
.
Persons with disabilities
,
according
t
o Au
x
ter et aI
.
(
1989
)
need the best possible ph
y
sique and
e
x
e
m
pl
ary fitn
ess
to ov
e
r
co
me
disc
rimin
ati
on and
obta
i
n soc
i
al acceptance
.
A
ud
i
tory hand
i
cap ma
k
es
i
nd
iv
iduals w
i
thdra
wn
a
nd
i
nactive
(Sherill
,
1993
)
.
Attempts
to
c
ommu
ni
cate
w
ith o
t
hers ca
n
be unsuccessful a
n
d
f
r
u
strating
;
and the auditor
y
handicapped find
i
t
difficult to participate in physical activities
.
Thus
,
the role of p
l
ay
,
which is important to the socia
l,
ps
y
chological and motor aspects of de
v
elopment
i
n
typ
i
cal children
,
i
s usual
l
y limited for the deaf
children
.
The Physical Education
and Sport
s
program is an e
x
cellent means of integrating the
deaf student into socia
l
situations in which he or
she can achieve some success and group appro
v
a
l
in
situations in which ability speaks for itself, thus
VOLUME LISSUE 1 Page 107
M
odern l
i
ving shows an Increase
I
n sedentary
p
ursu
i
ts result
i
n
g
in an ever-
i
ncreasing h
y
pokinetic
c
ondi
ti
ons
i
n persons
w
ith disabilities
.
Physical
educa
ti
on acti
v
it
i
es are basic for
t
he development
and maintenance of the bod
y
(Werner
,
1986) and
thus
,
s
hou
l
d be availed to e
v
er
y
one
.
Physical
E
du
cation
and
Sports program
s
in schools should
h
ave
t
he goal of enabling the disabled to make use
o
f ph
y
sical activities to enable adaptation to social
l
ife
,
communit
y
living
and
recreational
environments (Toluhi
,
1980)
.
There is
,
therefore, a
need to establish the effectiveness of the Physical
Education and Sports program in improving the
health-related fitness levels of the deaf students
.
HYPOTHESES
The fol
l
owing hypotheses were
t
ested
:
i)
There would be no significant effect of the
Physical Education and Sports program
offered to the deaf primar
y
school students
on their health-related fitness levels in the
areas of
:
•
low back flexibility
•
ab
t
lominal strength-endurance
•
cardioresp
i
rator
y
endurance
•
percent body fat
•
upper bod
y
strength-endurance
.
ii)
There would be no significant relationship
between gender and the effects of the
Physical Education and Sports program on
health-related fitness levels of the deaf
primary school pupils
.
iii)
There would be no significant relationship
between age and the effects of Physica
l
Education and Sports program on
health-related fitness levels of deaf primary school
pupils
.
METHODOLOGY
A pre- and post-test design was used in the st
u
d
y.
Pre-test and post-
t
est data treatment of the case
group was done which involved three stages
:
Pre-test, participation in Physical Education and Sports
program and post-test
.
The
dependen
t
v
ariables
i
ncluded
low
bac
k
f
l
exi
b
il
it
y
,
a
b
domi
n
al
stren
g
th-endurance
,
cardiorespiratory endurance
,
percent body fat and
uppe
r
bod
y
strength-endurance
.
In
order
t
o
establish entry status at the start of the program
,
a
pre-test was done at the beginning of the term a
f
ter
the subjects had returned
.
from a four-week
s
'
school vacation
.
The pupils were then exposed t
o
the Physical Education and Sports program for
eight weeks
.
A post-test was administered after th
e
program to determine any changes
.
Population
There were 25 schools for the deaf in Kenya at t
he
time this study commenced
.
Pupils at the Kaa
ga
School for the deaf were purposely selected as th
e
target population
.
The school
'
s population of
132pupils gave the researcher access to a relative
ly
VOLUME 1,ISSUE 1 Page 108
Sampling and Sampling Technique
The pupils in classes
f
ive
,
six and seven who were
1
1
,
12 and 13 respec
t
ive
l
y were purposively
s
ampled for the
s
tud
y
.
P
u
pils
i
n
c
lass four were
used for the pilot stud
y
.
Instruments for Data Collection
A
bat
t
er
y
o
f
te
s
t
s w
as used
to
e
v
a
l
uate
t
he
h
eal
t
h-re
lated
f
itness le
v
els
.
The tes
ts w
ere adm
i
nistered
a
cco
r
d
i
ng to the
AAH
PERD
'
s
19
88 P
hys
ical Best
Test manual
,
of which
i
ts use is recommended
amongst all populat
i
ons in
c
luding
those
w
ith
d
i
sabil
i
ties. O
v
er the 8-week period
,
the subjects
participated
i
n the physical ed
u
cat
i
on lessons dur
i
ng
regul
a
r l
ea
rning
s
e
s
sions
.
Procedure for Data Collection
P
ri
o
r
to the collec
ti
on o
f
data per
mis
s
i
o
n w
as
sought
f
rom the head of the schoo
l
to carr
y
out the
stud
y
at the school
.
Facilities
,
equipme
n
t and record
s
h
eets
w
ere prepared before the ac
t
ua
l
date o
f
testing to enhance the re
l
iability of the results
.
Physical education
teachers
were
trained
as
ass
i
stants
.
in tes
t
ing
of
low bac
k
flexibility
,
••
abdominal stren
g
th-endura
n
ce
,
cardio
r
espirator
y
endurance
,
percent body fa
t
and upper body
stren
g
th-endurance
.
Sign language was used to gi
v
e
test instructions
.
Testing of subjects was done per
classes to fac
i
litate efficient administration of tests
.
A pre-test was administered prior to the Physical
Education and Sports program on the various
health-related fitness components of low back
flexibilit
y
,
abdominal
strength-endurance
,
cardiorespiratory endurance
,
percent body fat a
n
d
upper body strength-endurance during the first
tw
o
weeks of the school term
.
The subjects were
t
he
n
e
x
posed to the Ph
y
s
i
cal Education a
n
d Sp
o
r
ts
program for a period of eight weeks
.
The po
st
-
t
e
st
w
as conducted at the end of the eight wee
ks
.
Data Analysis
A
ll
t
he pupil
s,
36 i
n
total
,
at
t
e
n
ded all
t
he
l
e
ssons
and sports sessions and
t
he
ir
pre-
a
nd post-test
s
results on health-related fitness levels were u
s
ed
for data analysis
.
The data were subjected
t
o
stat
i
st
i
cal
analysis
using
the
computer
su
b-p
r
ograms in the Statistical Package
f
or
t
he So
cial
Sciences
(SP
S
S)
.
D
e
scri
p
tiv
e
sta
t
is
t
i
c
s
were
comp
u
te
d
t
o
g
e
t t
he
m
ea
n
,
s
t
a
n
da
r
d de
vi
a
ti
o
n and
pe
rcent
a
ges for
each compo
n
e
nt
o
f f
i
t
ne
ss (low
bac
k f
le
xi
b
il
i
ty,
abdomina
l
strengt
h
-endura
nc
e
,
ca
r
d
i
o
r
esp
i
rator
y
endurance
,
percent bod
y f
a
t
a
n
d
upper body strength-endurance
)
.
The Pea
r
so
n's
correlation
c
oefficient
wa
s
u
sed to tes
t t
h
e
rela
t
ionship between
the
effects
of Ph
y
sica
l
Education and Sports program on the health-related
fitness levels of the deaf pupils and
t
he dependen
t
t-
t
e
st w
as also used to compare the pre-test and
post
-t
est resu
l
ts on
t
he same components
.
RESULTS
The results of this stud
y
are shown in Table 1
.
The overall fitness of the participants was recorded
both at pre-test and post-test
.
There was an overa
ll
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
body fat,
Page 109
strength-endurance, percent
cardiorespiratory endurance and upper body
strength-endurance. The overall findings on the
Table 1Overall Fitness of the Participants (N =36)
health-related fitness status of the participants
showed that, the participants had a lower fitness
level during pre-test as compared to post-test.
Pre-test Post-test
Variable(s) Mean Standard Mean Standard T- Pearson Deviation Deviation Value Correlation
IWeight (em) 40.6 7.2 40.2 7.1 0.18 0.97
Heart rate (bpm) 66.9 6.9 65 4.0 0.09 0.4
Balance (seconds) 4.1 3.3 4.9 2.6 0.13 0.5
Low back flexibility 9.7 5.1 11.9 4.3 0.00 0.8
(em)
Abdominal strength- 20.4 5.9 23.1 7.4 0.01 0.7 Endurance (counts)
Cardiorespiratory 7.7 1.1 6.8 0.9 0.00 0.0 Endurance (mins)
Skinfold 18.0 7.3 16.9 6.6 0.04 0.9 Measurements(mm)
Upper body
Strength-endurance
Girls(sees) 8.9 5.2 12.8 17.1 0.29 0.54 Boys (counts) 3.9 3.5 5.7 3.6 0.00 0.94
This study also established that ill
cardiorespiratory endurance and abdominal
strength-endurance, boys performed better than
girls. In low back flexibility, both girls and boys
demonstrated an improvement at all ages. The 16
to 19 year-old children improved significantly in
the abdominal strength-endurance more than the
12 to 15 year-old children. 12 to 15 year-old
children however, showed a greater improvement
in cardiorespiratory endurance than the 16 to 19
year-old children.
DISCUSSION
Though there was some improvement tn the
participants' standing stork balance means, there
was no significant difference between the pre- and
post-tests results. Auxter et al. (1989) note that,
deaf children experience difficulties with balance
since the inner ear, containing the vestibular
apparatus helps in equilibrium maintenance. Little
wonder then that the eight-week Physical
Education and Sports program did not have
significant improvement on the participants'
balance.
Increased flexibility was indicated by the ability to
reach a longer distance during the sit-and-reach
test. The participants improved in trunk flexion
after the eight-week Physical Education and
VOLUME 1,ISSUE 1
significant change III their low back flexibility
afterthe eight weeks period of Physical Education
and Sports. There was also a significant difference
between the pre-test and post-test results in the
participants' low back flexibility according to age.
These findings agree with those by Wasonga
(1989) and Kinoti (1998). Wilmore and Costill
(1994) indicate that physical activity improves
trunk flexion and flexibility is lost easily during
periods of inactivity and significant changes in
flexibility occur in 5 to 15 weeks in joints
exercised.
Increased number of sit-ups per minute indicated
an increase in the ability to continue repeated
contractions. The participants in this study
performed more sit ups during post-test as
compared to pre-test. This reflects that the
Physical Education and Sports program improved
the participants' abdominal strength-endurance
after the eight weeks exercise period. Boys
demonstrated a significant improvement in their
abdominal strength-endurance. However, girls did
not portray
,
. a significant improvement after theeight weeks period of Physical Education and
Sports program. There was a significant difference
in the abdominal strength-endurance of
participants aged 16 to 19 years. However, there
was no significant difference between the pre-test
and post-test abdominal strength-endurance of the
participants aged 12 to 15 years. Studies have
indicated that physical activity Improves
abdominal strength-endurance (Wilmore and
Costill, 1994;Kinoti, 1998).
Page 110 .
The participants who finished the l-rnile run-walk
in the shortest time demonstrated a high
cardiorespiratory function. There was a significant
difference between the participants' pre- and
post-tests results of cardiorespiratory endurance. Both
girls and boys showed improvement in their
cardiorespiratory endurance after the eight weeks
period of Physical Education and Sports program.
The 12 to 15 year-old children improved
significantly in the cardiorespiratory endurance as
opposed to the 16 to 19 year-old children.
Wilmore and Costill (1994) indicates that physical
activity improves cardiorespiratory endurance.
The more efficient ones cardiovascular and
respiratory systems are, the greater the amount of
physical activity an individual can perform before
fatigue and exhaustion occur.
Reduced percent body fat was indicated by lesser
skinfold measurements. The results of the study
indicate that the participants, collectively (girls
and boys) improved in skinfolds fat measurement
during the eight-week period of Physical
Education and Sports program. The pre-test and
post-test differences for boys and girls were not
significant at 0.05 level. Both boys and girls at
different age groups, did. not show statistically
significant changes in their percent body fat after
the eight weeks of Physical Education and Sports
program. Wemer (1986) notes that it takes time to
reduce body fat and an eight weeks duration
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page III The results of the study showed that after the
Physical
Education and Spurts program
,
thct c was
improvement in the upper body
strength-endurance of boys, and none in that of girls.
Changes were noted however, among aJl
participants, though they were not statistically
significant for girls at 0.05 level. Katch and
McArdle (I983) argue that tests for strength of
boys and girls differ since boys have greater
muscle mass, bigger shoulders, arm and trunk
strength development than girls due to hormones.
These findings concur with those of Wasonga
(1989) in which boys performed significantly
better in upper body strength-endurance.
CONCLUSION
The study noted improved performances in the
health-related fitness levels of the deaf children
after an eight-week period of Physical Education
and Sports. Nolan and Tucker () 984) note that
children who are deaf have reduced social
contacts, which in turn leads to reduced
opportunity to participate in sports. It is suggested
that parents of the I).earing impaired children be
encouraged to set aside time each day to play with
the child. The child should also have access to a
rich variety of play materials with which he or she
can engage in solitary or group play at home.
Activities on Physical Education and Sports for
the hearing impaired pupils in Kenya are similar to
those in the regular program. Hearing impaired
pupils need individual assessment and programs
that will meet their unique needs. Arnheim (I 995)
notes that, the deaf children, whose problems are
in the inner car
,
have difficulties
with
a
c
c
ura
c
y
,
agility, balance and leg power. Well planned and
supervised exercise programs are necessary for the
deaf to help their motor functioning, as well as
improving their coordination, balance and
equilibrium.
RECOMMENDA
r
f
lONS
I. Some theory lessons should be introduced for
teaching in the Physical Education syllabus in
order to teach the scientific and theoretical
basis of health and physical fitness to pupils.
This will help students appreciate and
participate in Physical Education and Sports
knowledgeably. It will thus be a source of
motivation for bett r performance.
2. Physical Education and Sports should be
encouraged in the schools for the deaf for the
purposes of enhancing the deaf children's
health status at all levels of the education
system. Kenya Institute of Education (K.l. E.)
should develop a suitable Physical Education
syllabus geared towards improving the
physical activities; which can enhance the deaf
pupils health.
3. Adapted Physical Education courses in the
higher institutes of education should introduce
sign language for the deaf as one of the areas
of competency.
4. Teachers of Ad.pted Physical Education
should carry out 'periodical physical fitness
assessment to establish the health status of the
VOLUME I, ISSUE I Page 112 the areas of strengths and weaknesses in their
physical fitness; and provide appropriate
remedial fitness programs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The assistance of Dr. Wanderi, Mrs. Goodwin, Dr.
Wamukoya and Dr. Alade IS gratefully
acknowledged. Without their assistance this study
would not be possible.
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American Alliance for Health, Physical
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AAPHER Publications.
Arnheirn, W. (1995): Physical fitness and
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Auxter, D., Pyfer, 1. and Huettig, C. (1989):
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St. Louis: The CV Mosby.
Katch, F.I. and McArdle, W.D. (1983): Nutrition,
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Lea & Febiger.
Kinoti, J.W. (1998): Effects of the diploma
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Masters Thesis, Kenyatta University.
Nolan, M. and Tucker. I. (1984): Educational
Audiology. London: Croom Helm
Safrit, M and Wood, M (1995): Introduction to
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olds of a Kenyan secondary school.
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