Dear Llinos,

knowing that this is not the answer you have asked for, I would like to make one remark, anyway: I would suggest to pose the question differently. In my opinion it makes no sense to approach "disabled children" as a group with a homogeneous set of attitudes. Obviously, I am sure that you agree, wheelchairs do not delimitate the individual freedom with respect to personal attitudes towards anything. Or do I miss the point, you were making? With kind regards, Franz

Dear Franz

Thanks for your response. I agree with you that my question is far too general, and perhaps that's why I'm struggling to make the point that I am tryng to make in the paper that I am writing at the moment. I want to say that the children and young people in our sample (of wheelchair users) were mostly in favour of doing exercises and knew the benefits of exercise and were self-motivated to do exercise.. and I want to say ...this is similar/different to the results of......whoever - but I don't know if anybody has investigated this before with this sample in the UK - and that is what I'm trying to get at. We did a systematic review in 2012-2013 (in preparation) and didn't find anything relevant then - just wondered if anybody knew of any reference regarding this that I could use. I hope that makes my question clearer.

Kind regards

Llinos

Dear Llinos,

no promises but you should check out Niina Kolehmainen's work. She is now at Newcastle University. She was looking at participation rates of disabled children in sports or something similar. Even if she hasn't published something you could use directly she might have a good reference.

Kind regards,

Yvonne

Dear Yvonne

Thanks for the signpost to Niina kolehmainen's work. It looks very relevant.

Kind regards

Llinos

Dear Llinos,

from another point of view, I just read an article which described the perspectives of children on their disabilities in comparison to their parents and docters.

Although, it is not focused on performing exercises, Saigal, Stoskopf, and Feeny suggest "that the perceived value of life changes appreciably when a person has to cope with a disability or when faced with a life-threatening situation. "

In other words, these children might just want to be similar to their friends and therefore might be extra motivated to exercise in order to keep of with their friends.

Kind regards,

Bibian van der Voorn,

PhD student pediatric endocrinology, VUMC, Amsterdam

Saigal, S., Stoskopf, B., & Feeny, D. (1999). Differences in preferences for neonatal outcomes among health care professionals, parents, and adolescents. Jama, 281(21), 1991–1997. 

Dear Bibian

Thanks for the reference, I will check it out.

Best wishes

Llinos