Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: One of the greatest benefits of inclusion in general physical education (PE) is the opportunity for social interactions between students with and without disabilities. Unfortunately, interviews with children with disabilities who have participated in PE often find that social interactions with students without disabilities were limited. A model that promotes interaction between students with and without disabilities in PE is Special Olympics Unified Physical Education (UPE). In UPE, students with and without disabilities participate in activities together rather than the one-way focus on traditional peer tutoring. There have been anecdotal reports on positive benefits of UPE for both students with and without disabilities. To date, there has been no published research on UPE. Additionally, some question how UPE has been implemented in schools specifically questioning if UPE provided quality PE and whether students with disabilities were forced into UPE and denying opportunities to participate in general PE. The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand how UPE was developed and implemented in select U.S. schools. Interviews with twelve teachers who were directly involved in their UPE programs revealed the following four major themes: (1) our children were not being served appropriately, (2) mix of PE standards and Special Olympics programming, (3) UPE is a choice, and (4) our students improved in many ways. The discussion examined the results in relation to the criticisms of UPE and how UPE proved to be a positive alternative to limited social interactions in general PE.
Source: Disabilities
Authors: Zarah Ford, Martin E Block
Institution: University of Virginia
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,207
OpenAlex ID: W4413927520