Investigation of the Effect of Physical Development of Students on Water Therapy Education Training Program which is Applied to Mentally Retarded

The aim of this research is, the effect of physical and emotional development of students on the water therapy training program which is applied to mentally retarded. 24 students (16 male, 8 female) who study in the special education and rehabilitation center have participated to this research. These students are between 10 and 18 years of age. The special movement education program has been made for therapeutic reaction in the pool by special education experts and physical education sport faculty for the students. This special movement education program has been developed considering the exercises of force, flexibility, ability and balance. Permissions were obtained from parents of students and corporate executives for this program. This program was performed for two months, two days in each week and 60-90 minutes each day. The observations of workouts were saved from beginning to the end with the permission of the parents. According to the research observations, it was observed that before the studies students hesitated getting into the water, they were afraid and hesitant to do the exercises, failed to do the movements and did not want to leave their parents. After the research process, it was observed that students wanted to get into the water immediately, they did the exercises with fun, managed all the exercises which were shown after 2-3 times and they wanted from their parents to go out of the pool during the studies. In interviews with parents, they expressed that their children woke up early for coming to the special education and rehabilitation center in the day of pool studies, they wanted to prepare their pool stuff, they came to the center happily and they were much calmer and were obedient after they went home and they had better sleep. According to the research it has been reached that water therapy training program of children who take special education contributed positively to the physical, social and psychological development of the students. Keywords: mentally retarded; water therapy; therapeutic recreation; exercise;