The Effect of an 8-Week Pilates Program on Performance Test Scores of Adolescents With Intellectual Disability

This study aimed to investigate the effect of an 8-week program of selected Pilates exercises on the performance test scores of male adolescent students with mild (teachable) Intellectual Disability (ID). This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and control group design. Study participants consisted of 30 individuals with ID. The study subjects were 10- to 15-year-old male students who were randomly selected by the convenience sampling method from the students of special schools in Parsabad City, Iran. The subjects were randomly assigned to the control (15 subjects) and experimental (15 subjects) groups. A set of tests were used as the performance test. The experimental group’s exercise program included Pilates exercises. The subjects performed the exercises for 8 weeks (3 sessions per week). The Independent t test and Paired t test were used to analyze the data. In the experimental group, the results of this study revealed a significant difference in star excursion to extension (P=0.001), star excursion to abduction (P=0.004), vertical jump (P=0.001), 3 times single-leg jump (P=0.001), shuttle run (P=0.001), and stair sprints (P=0.003) after performing the exercises (P=0.05). However, there were no significant differences in star excursion to flexion (P=0.13) and single-leg jump (P=0.18) in the experimental group and the results of all tests in the control group (P≥0.05). Pilates exercises seem to improve the balance and function of lower limbs in individuals of the ID group.