Samenvatting

A “cluster 3 school” is an institution focused on children with psychical disabilities, mental disabilities or chronic diseases. Within this institution there is a lot of attention for all the care these children need. There are, for example, nurses, physical therapists and doctors. However, psychomotor therapy (PMT) is not yet a expertise this institution has to offer. Because the children attending this kind of institution have another kind of development comparing to children without disabilities. The expectation is that the body awareness of these children is also different. Body awareness is an important factor of PMT and a lot of interventions are focused on body awareness.

There are a lot of papers on body awareness. For example, studies about the body awareness of people with eating disorders or the body awareness of children with mental disorders. However, a paper about the body awareness of children with a physical disability is hard to be found. That’s why this paper is significant.

The research question:
Witch body awareness do have children in the age of 10 to 18 with a psychical disability compare to children of 10 to 18 without a physical disability?

The research-method that has been used for this paper is the LBK 3.0, A query especially made for children in the age of 8 to 12. Its designed to measure if and too which extend there is a form of body awareness within the group questioned. To answer the LBK-3.0 query a research group and a control group were formed. The research group consisted of children in the ages of 10-18 with a physical disability. They all went to a cluster 3 school.
The control group consisted of children in the ages of 10-18 who attend a regular school.
The data retrieved from the LBK-3.0 query was processed in SPSS. With SPSS a comparison was made between the research group and the control group. Out of the 153 points they were able to score, the research group scored 107,1points. The control group had a score of 103,8 points. This is not a significant difference.

There are several things that are not included in the test results which could have influenced the results if they were measured:
- LBK 3.0 is a standardized questionnaire. Therefore you need a research- and a control group in order to be able to do research.
- There was only one measure moment, if there were several the results might have been different.
- A distinction between the several forms of physical disability has not been made. Also, if and what kind of therapy the child may have had in the past is not taken into account for this research.
The conclusion of this research is that the body awareness of children in the ages of 10-18 with a psychical disability is not different in comparison to children in the ages of 10-18 without a psychical disability.