New Skills - No Scores Research Study
Condition: Intellectual Disability
MeSH terms: Intellectual Disability
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of a physical literacy and food literacy
      intervention for children with Intellectual Disabilities ages 12-16 years. The Investigators
      plan to assess preliminary efficacy of the intervention for increasing 1) physical literacy
      including movement skills, physical self-concept, and desire to participate in physical
      activity and 2) food literacy including knowledge around making healthy food choices, basic
      food preparation skills, and engaging in healthy eating behavior.
    

Detailed description: 
      Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are more likely than typically developing
      children to have higher cardio-metabolic risk factors, lower levels of health-related
      fitness, and be overweight and obese. As such, they represent a health disparities
      population. Low physical activity levels, increased sedentary time, and poor diet quality are
      likely contributors to these inequities. The goal of the Investigators is to develop
      strategies that enable children with ID to attain optimal health by meeting US Physical
      Activity Guidelines and Dietary Guidelines for Americans. To achieve this goal, children with
      ID must develop physical literacy and food literacy - the knowledge, skills, confidence and
      desire to participate in physical activity and make healthy food choices. This project seeks
      to:1) test the feasibility of a physical literacy and food literacy intervention for children
      with ID, and 2) preliminarily assess the efficacy of the intervention for increasing physical
      literacy including movement skills, confidence, and desire to participate in physical
      activity, and food literacy including knowledge around making healthy food choices, basic
      food preparation skills, and engaging in healthy eating behavior. Thirty male (n=15) and
      female (n=15) children with ID ages 12-16 will participate in a 12-week , virtual, combined
      sport skills sampling and healthy eating education program. Weekly online sessions will
      include 35 minutes of sports skills activities and 35 minutes of educational and skill
      activities to promote healthy eating. Sport skill sampling activities will aim to develop
      locomotor and object control skills via four 3-week sessions including dribbling, locomotor
      skills, ball skills, and a fourth session combining them all. Healthy eating sessions will
      focus on increasing knowledge to identify healthy foods and to make healthy choices, basic
      skills for preparing food, and a taste test thematically related to the lesson. The
      intervention will also include a practice component called "Give it Try." Children will be
      provided with a piece(s) of sports equipment (e.g., soccer ball, basketball) and skill videos
      with instructions and fun ideas for practicing sport skills outside of program sessions,
      additionally as part of "Give it a Try" we encourage participants to try new foods outside of
      the intervention. Process measures of demand, acceptability, and implementation will be
      obtained to test feasibility, and a pre-test/post-test design will allow for preliminary data
      on efficacy of the intervention. Measures of physical literacy include the Test of Gross
      Motor Development, 3rd ed, Physical Self-Inventory-ID, and Children's Self- Perceptions of
      Adequacy in and Predilection for Physical Activity scale. Measures of food literacy include a
      questionnaire on food knowledge and parent proxy report of dietary patterns based on a
      modified food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and questions from the Youth Risk Behavioral
      Surveillance Survey. This early phase study is a step toward promoting health and reducing
      the inequities that exist for children with ID.
    

Intervention name(s): Physical Literacy & Food Literacy Intervention.
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): A 12-week intervention designed to expose adolescents with ID to a variety of sports skills and healthy eating concepts to equip them with skills and confidence to participate in sports and make healthy food choices. The program will follow a protocol adapted to meet the needs of a diverse group of children with ID. Sessions will be held 1 time/week for 75 minutes virtually; 35 minutes will focus on sport skills activities with 35 minutes devoted to healthy eating.
Other intervention name(s): New Skills - No Scores
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: physical literacy; food literacy