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INTRODUCTION: Muscle strength, a component for balance, gait and functional mobility is vital for children with visual impairment. Yoga has frequently been demonstrated to improve physical and mental fitness in children. This study aimed to assess the effect of 16 weeks yoga training on muscular fi tness in children with visual impairment. METHODS: This was a wait-listed two-armed-matched case-control study. Eighty (41 yoga, 39 control) visual impairment students of both genders aged 9-16 years matched on age, gender and degree of blindness were assessed at pre, mid (after 8 weeks) and post (after 16 weeks) yoga intervention using the Kraus-Weber test. RESULTS: The percentage of students passed in yoga group were 12.2%, 43.9% and 68.3% whereas percentages in the control group were 23.1%, 30.8% and 30.8% in pre, mid, and post tests respectively. McNemar test showed significant differences between pre and mid, mid and post in the yoga group while those parameters were not significantly different in the control group. Yoga therapy seemed to have considerable benefits for the children's muscular fi tness. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that yoga have considerable benefits for improvement of fitness level in children with visual impairment and may be recommended as and effective, alternative, inexpensive low risk training activity option for them.
CONTEXT: Childhood visual deficiency impairs children's neuro-psychomotor development, considerably affecting physical, mental, social, and emotional health. Yoga's multifaceted approach may help children with visual impairment (VI) to cope with their challenges. AIM: This study aimed to develop a special protocol for teaching yoga to children with VI, and to evaluate their preferred method of learning. METHODS: The study was carried out at Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind, Bengaluru, South India. Forty-one students volunteered to learn yoga practices, and classes were held weekly 5 days, 1 hr per session for 16 weeks. The study introduced a new method using a sequence of five teaching steps: verbal instructions, tactile modeling, step-by-step teaching, learning in a group, and physical guidance. A questionnaire concerning the preferred steps of learning was then given to each student, and verbal answers were obtained. RESULTS: A total of 33 (out of 41), aged 11.97 +/- 1.94, 15 girls and 18 boys responded. Twenty-six (78.79%) chose physical guidance as their most favored learning mode. CONCLUSIONS: Specially designed protocol may pave the way to impart yoga in an exciting and comfortable way to children with VI. More studies are needed to further investigate the effectiveness of this new yoga protocol in similar settings.