SWIMMING THERAPY FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH FUNCTIONAL SPINAL CORD DISORDERS AND ASTHMATIC SYMPTOMS.

The first author, a physiotherapist, has organized swimming therapy sessions and has taught elementary school children to swim in satellite settlements of Budapest (Fót, Dunakeszi and Erdőkertes) and Újpest (the fourth district of Budapest) for more than ten years. The applied teaching method has been built on previous studies at Semmelweis University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences and the special method of group swimming therapy for children under eighteen years by Jády (2002). According to the "Will-model" „Akarat-modell” (Gyene, 2006), the following question was investigated: How do standard psychomotor tests including rhythm change running, boomerang running, balance test on one foot & obstacle course (Farmosi and Gaál S-né, 2007), as well as physical self-concept and motivation skills, differ from each other, and from body mass index, in a homogeneous group of children of decimal age, who take part or do not take part in swimming therapy sessions because of their functional spinal cord disorders? In this article it is reported that after 18 months, in 2011, the follow-up research revealed some changes in the variables of the former study for the group taking part in swimming therapy and the control group without functional spinal cord disorders not taking part in swimming therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]