The Sports in Training the Learners with Special Needs

Abstract

Sport has relatively recently ceased to be an applied institution of social life. If earlier the sport had a strictly
defined additional orientation (for example, it served the purposes of increasing the combat training of the army), then
after the Second World War, sport becomes a means of demonstrating the prestige of the state, reaching the
international level. Sport becomes a professional activity and an independent direction of the commercial life of the
society.
This paper is a preliminary research which gathers quantitative and qualitative information about social bonding for two
categories of stake-holders: intellectually disabled athletes and partners from mainstream schools, training and
competing in unique teams. This approach aimed at: identifying the perception of self-concept and self-esteem among ID
athletes in relation to their social integration, determining the way ID athletes think they are perceived by their school
friends and partners within Special Olympics events, identifying the positive effects on both personal and social levels,
by participating in Sports events, identifying the partners’ perception related to the athletes’ abilities and possibility to
advocate in this respect.
All data confirmed that regular training and Sports competition attendance leads to greater social inclusion, an interesting
self-concept and self-esteem perception of the athletes, as well as certain inside ways of viewing the positive outcomes
of delivering such educational programs.