Efekti primene programa plivanja i vežbanja u vodi kod dece sa cerebralnom paralizom

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of an experimental swimming and aquatic exercise program on the improvement of the gross motor function, swimming skills, an increase in the flexibility and effectiveness of walking among children with cerebral palsy. The sample of participants consisted of 15 children with cerebral palsy of Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I, II and III, aged 6 to 17. The research included the А-B study design with two initial and one final measuring. The control period between two initial measurings lasted for 12 weeks, as did the experimental program itself. The duration of each individual training session was 60 min, three times a week. Each training session consisted of swimming instruction exercises based on the Halliwick method and instruction exercises for the freestyle technique, breaststroke and backstroke for a period of 30 min. The following 30 min inlcuded walking exercises with strength exercises and flexibility exercises for the lower extremities. Of the measuring instruments, the six-minute walk test was used, the ten-meter walk test at maximum and normal speed, the index of energy consumption, the tests for the evaluation of flexibility, the water orientation test Alyn 2 and the test for the evaluation of the gross motor function. The obtained results indicate that the applied program was effective in the sense that it led to an improvement in gross motor function, swimming skills, walking endurance, maximum walking speed and shoulder flexibility, while in terms of energy consumption, leg flexibility and normal walking speed, no statistically significant changes occurred. The applied experimental program could be used in practice for the improvement of the health status and the increase of the level of physical activity and the level of physical fitness of children with cerebral palsy.