THE DEVELOPMENT OF NON-CONTACT BOXING GUIDELINES FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LEARNING DISORDERS

The research question posed in this study was: What are the non-contact boxing guidelines for learners with SLD aged 8 to 12 to enhance gross motor skill development and sport participation during PE lessons in LSEN schools?

During this study, the researcher aimed to capture all participants’ knowledge and ideas about what should be included in the non-contact boxing guidelines through two asynchronous online focus groups (AOFGs). The participants were divided into two AOFGs, each containing 7 participants who represented at least one of the five professions included in this research study. AOFG were selected for the data collection in phase 1 as it allowed the participants to take part in this research study, which would otherwise not have been possible for them due to their irregular work schedules, time differences and family responsibilities.

The AOFGs were hosted online through the University of Pretoria’s Blackboard LearnTM platform. The AOFGs were presented as dynamic bulletin boards on the Blackboard LearnTM platform. It allowed participants from both AOFGs to answer the questions that were posted on this bulletin board by the moderating author over the course of one week, which enhanced the participation. The two AOFGs ran simultaneously this week.

During the AOFG 14 participants actively engaged making the number of participants in this study sufficient to achieve data saturation (Piah et al., 2024). The content analysis of the AOFGs identified six main guideline categories and 13 subcategories, which guided the content to be included in the non-contact boxing guidelines. The six main categories were developed and adapted from (Thomas, 2015). occupation-based activity analysis principles. They included ,1) Method of group presentation, 20 Activities, 3) Grading, 4) Method of instruction, 5) Frequency and 6) Structuring. The authors also categorized items underneath each of the 13 sub-categories, which represented recurring suggestions from the AOFG data. These included, 1) Learner paring, 2) Group size, 3) Activity selection, 4) Activity duration, 5) Equipment, 6) Grading of Activities, 7) Activity demonstration, 8) Motivation and rewards, 9) Behaviors and discipline, 10) Session duration, 11) Session frequency, 12) Space requirements, 13) Group positioning.

Under each of these sub-categories, participants made recommendations that led the authors to develop items organized under each sub-category. 282 item guidelines were retrieved from the AOFG and organized underneath the relevant sub-and main categories.