| Summary: | Participation in recreational and leisure activity is important for children
development. It also promotes social well-being, as well as physical and mental health.
learn skills for teamwork, self-discipline, sportsmanship, leadership, and socialization.
All children would benefit from recreational and leisure activities including children
with disabilities. This study investigated level of activity participation of children with
and without disability in recreational and leisure activities and how those spent their
leisure time. Forty children aged between 5 and 12 years old were recruited in this
study and divided equally into two groups, namely Typical Development children (TD)
and children with Intellectual Disability (ID).
The Modified Activities Questionnaire (MAQ) was used to measure children
participation in recreational and leisure activities. The top five most frequent
recreational activities participated by TD children were cycling, running, football,
walking and badminton. Conversely, the top five most frequent recreational activities
participated by ID children were walking, dancing, running, singing and playing
football. It was found that TD children have higher level of activity participation in
recreational activities than ID children.
In term of leisure activities, the top five most frequent participated by TD
children were watching TV, playing computer games, listening to music, playing video
games and leisure reading (book/comic). The top five most frequent leisure activities
participated by ID children were watching TV. painting, water activities, listening to
music, leisure reading (book/comic) and playing video games. This study found that the
Recreational and leisure activities provide learning opportunities for children such as level of participation in leisure activities of TD and ID children were similar. It was
also found that TD children tend to participate more in active leisure but ID children
participated more in passive leisure.
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