Você participa de atividades de lazer? Um estudo qualitativo para dar voz às crianças e adolescentes com deficiência no Brasil

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Children must be understood as a social agent, influencing their own functioning and life course. Leisure is a part of a child’s life and is their right, just as is participating in activities they like to do. Children and adolescents with disabilities, however, are more likely to have difficulties practicing leisure activities, when compared to typical children. Studies suggest that children with disabilities are usually involved in less diverse activities, when compared to those without disabilities. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to assess and describe which are the preferred leisure activities appointed by children with disabilities and how frequently they participate in such activities. METHODOLOGY: This is a qualitative study with focal groups. Seven groups were assembled, totalling 40 participants. Conversations were guided by a moderator and lasted about 40 minutes. All conversations were recorded and transcribed for further analysis of speech. RESULTS: The most activities the children and adolescents with disability mentioned the most were “play”, “games”, and “beach”, respectively. All participants manifested a preference for certain activities but some of them didn’t participate or engage in their preferred activities. We also included sports practice in our analysis and all participants said they wanted to participate in a sport, but none of them did. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that there’s a considerable difference in the desired frequency of participation in leisure activities and the actual participation by children and adolescents with disabilities. Furthermore, we understand that what the children actually want to do needs to be taken into account. Adaptations can be made in order to get these children to acquire a better sense of their own identity and get more involved in leisure activities.