The Asian Society of Adapted Physical Education and Exercise (ASAPE) has contributed to the development of sport for the elderly and those with disabilities (adapted sport) through the practical application of research. In this paper, the rolls of adapted sport in solving social issues experienced by the elderly and disabled individuals are examined. The first area of the focus is the creation of positive attitude and improvement of skills for living through adapted sport. The second area concerns adapted sport's contribution to the enrichment of the quality of life of the elderly and disabled individuals. The third subject considered is the influence of inclusive physical education and adapted sport on the general public's acceptance of those with disabilities into mainstream society.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the motor ability of deaf children aged four to six. It was hoped that the results would yield suggestions for the instruction of physical activities for deaf children. Six test items, i.e. 25m Dash, Standing Long Jump, Softball Throwing, Upright Handstanding Time, Beam Cross Jump and Ball Catching were carried out as a means of motor ability measurement at schools for the deaf. In addition, a questionnaire was sent to school teachers. They were asked to fill in the family-related questions of each of their students, and the features of their physical activities at school. Four to six year-old deaf children were compared with hearing children. The results were as follows. 1) The deaf children's performance was significantly lower than that of hearing children's, except for Ball Catching and Girl's Softball Throwing. 2) As for the deaf children, sex differrence of performance was observed only in Softball Throwing. On the contrary, performance of hearing boys was significantly higher than that of hearing girls in all age classifications in 25mDash, Standing Long Jump, Softball Throwing and Ball Catching. 3) Motor ability of deaf children was not influenced by factors such as siblings, grandparents and type of residence unlike hearing children. 4) Factors of physical activity features were closely related to the motor ability of deaf children in almost all of the items measured as they were for hearing children. These results suggest that the motor ability of deaf children could be improved more by school teachers on conditoin that teachers would consider appropriate circumstance where deaf children play and various kinds of plays for children would be included.

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The purpose of the present study is to clarify the effect of participation in integrated sports on elementary school children's general attitudes toward the people with disabilities. Subjects were 123 non-disabled children (58 Males, 65 Females, Age 11-12 yrs.) from two elementary schools. All subjects were asked about their perceptions of disabilities and wheelchair basketball before practice. After that subjects played wheelchair basketball with disabled adult players. All subject were asked the same items of pre-test after practice. The results from this study show that subjects generally developed a more positive attitude toward the people with disabilities after their participation in wheelchair basketball. These results suggested that this integrated sports practice playing wheelchair basketball was effective in making children's attitude more positive toward people with disability.

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The purpose of this study was to make clear some characteristics of motor coordination of young children without some disorders and with very low birth weight (VLBW). There were forty-eight participants between the age of four and six years; twenty-four young children with VLBW and twenty-four young children without VLBW. Some characteristics of motor coordination of the young children with VLBW were assessed by the "Movement Assessment Battery for Children Age Band 1 (MABC)". A VLBW group showed significantly high impairment scores (I-Score) in domain "manual dexterity", "static and dynamic balance" and "Total I-Score". As the result of subtest "rolling ball into goal" only showed at about same score as controls, it suggested that a VLBW group was difficult to adapt themselves to an environment unstable. And the information of its qualitative observation was seen to be of value to guess what some factors of motor problem of children with VLBW were; attention, visual perception, or so. The coefficient of correlation between birth weight and Total I-Score of VLBW group was significant, but the one between gestational age and Total I-Score was not

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This study examined the safe and effective use of table tennis for patients with ischemic heart disease, as well as considerations that should be observed when providing rehabilitation guidance. The study subjects were 15 heart disease patients (male, mean age 63.9±5.8 years) who were in long-term rehabilitation. Three conditions of play were established for measurements, and heart rate, oxygen uptake, and rating of perceived exertion were recorded. The exercise intensity was in the target range (55.5±10.6% heart rate reserve) when the patient and examiner played one-on-one, and this style of play was thought to be appropriate for patients with good physical strength and skill levels. Rating of perceived exertion was not related to physiological exercise intensity, including heart rate and oxygen uptake. When providing guidance, one must keep in mind the need to avoid competitive settings, check heart rate frequently, and adjust exercise intensity so as to stay within the target levels.

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To investigate beneficial effects of aerobic and resistance training on the health-related physical fitness in elderly women, we conducted various tests for measurement of physical fitness and analyzed blood components during 20 weeks of exercise training. Exercise program of this study consisted of 12 weeks of aerobic training and subsequent 8 weeks of resistance training. Thirty five elderly women aged 65 to 75 year-old were randomly assigned to either aerobic and resistance training group (n=18) or control group (n=17). The effects of 20 weeks of aerobic and resistance training on body composition, muscular strength, maximal heart rate (HRmax), maximal oxygen uptake (Vo2max), and serum lipids were studied in pre-, mid-, and post-exercise training. During the exercise training period, the training group showed a significant improvement in muscular strength, HRmax, and Vo2max except body composition as compared with the control group (P<0.05). Exercise training, however, did not revealed significant changes in the level of serum lipids except HDL-C. Our aerobic and resistance training markedly enhanced health-related physical fitness in elderly women, and resistance exercise could appropriately be combined with endurance exercise to increase muscular strength and simultaneously improve a respiratory and circulatory system.

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The purpose of this study was to survey the past history of falls in the psychiatric ward. The subjects were 129 psychiatric patients (75 males, 54 females) undergoing long-term hospitalization, who could walk independently. The number of falls in a one-year period was surveyed retrospectively. The results obtained were as follows: 1. 21.7% patients had fallen. 2. Fallers were higher in age than non-fallers and had a higher rate of physical disease. 3. The rate of falls was higher in females and in the isolation ward. 4. No relation was confirmed between falls and BMI, duration of hospitalization, prescription quantity major tranquilizer and minor tranquilizer. 5. Frequent repeated fall patients existed, which was attributed to a peculiarity of psychiatric patients. These findings suggested the importance of preventing falls by improving the physical fitness of psychiatric patients in the ward.

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This paper presents a support system which allows the visually challenged to play flying disc. Until recently it has been difficult for the visually challenged to play flying disc with sighted players. However, with image processing technology it has become possible. Our system consists of a DV camera and a computer. The system can detect the disc flying in the air, and then specifies the three dimensional coordinates of the disc. It judges whether the disc will pass through the goal. Further the system also lets the player know the course of the disc by means of sound. That is, the tone allows the player to recognize whether the disc is moving in the direction of right or left as the sound pitch distinguishes the height of the disc in flight. We demonstrated this system at a school for the visually challenged. Using our system, they could play flying disc after only one practice session.

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In this study, needs test was carried out to examine factors prescribed for participants' decisions. The factors were "specialty of instructors", "fees", "frequency of practice", "management" and "parents' attendance". Parents whose children participate in some sports activities participated in this study. The number of participants was 56. The result shows that the factors such as "fees" and "specialty of instructors" influence participants' decision for participation, while "management" does not. The following components were favored by participants in each factor. They were "instructors who make a special study both in physical education and special education", "1,000 yen per lesson", "a lesson per week", "the management of the existing sports club" and "the participants without parent's attendance" The result also shows participants' attitude about "purpose of participation" and "need for life-long sports". The parents expect sporting activities to bring about enjoyment for the children and development about social skills, rather than development about movement skills. More so, parents were hopeful of their children's participation in life-long sports.

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