| Abstract [eng] |
Background. Hearing impairment is one of the most frequently occurring diseases in children, both congenital and acquired. It affects approximately 1 to 3 children in every 1000 (Seifert et al., 2005). Objectives. This study aimed to reveal the impact of physical activity on the mathematics achievement of primary school pupils with hearing impairments. Materials and methods. The Children’s Physical Activity Questionnaire (Corder et al., 2009)was used, which is based on the Children’s Leisure Activities Study Survey questionnaire, which includes activities explicit to little children, such as “playing in a playhouse”. The Mathematics Progress Monitoring Test (MPMT) (Kliziene et al., 2024) was adapted for pupils with hearing impairment. The MPMT was used to assess the mathematics achievement of the students who took part in the study. Theywere designed to evaluate each pupil’s achievement level, which, according to the general curriculum, was divided into unsatisfactory, satisfactory, basic, and advanced. The mathematics achievement of pupils with hearing impairment was assessed in four areas of the mathematics curriculum. Results. The posttest results of first-grade primary school pupils with hearing impairments(158.95 MET, min/week) were analyzed to compare average physical activity with the pretest results (125.61 MET, min/week), during physical education lessons. Walking to school (20.39 MET, min/week) and cycling to school (16.85 MET, min/week) showed statistically significant differences (between types of physical activity) in the pretest and posttest according to MET p<0.05. PA helped pupils with hearing impairment to achieve basic results (pretest (5.81 (3.25) posttest (16.84 (2.98); p = 0.000) and advanced results (pretest (0.81 (0.53) posttest (4.18 (0.47); p = 0.002). Conclusions. According to the findings, it was established that properly interpreted and appropriately applied physical activity for primary school pupils with hearing impairment led to statistically significant changes in dependent variables: an increase in pupils’ physical activity and academic achievement. Marked changes were observed in mathematics tasks that required higher-level thinking skills, knowledge, and understanding; distribution of mathematics learning achievement by content such as natural and integer numbers, patterns and relationships, geometry and measurements, data, and statistical probabilities. Higher levels of physical activity resulted in achievement levels changing from satisfactory to basic and advanced. |
