Investigation of school social behaviors, motor skills and parents' attitudes towards physical education lesson of secondary school students with and without learning disability diagnosis

The aim of the study is to examine the school social behaviors, motor skills and parents' attitudes towards physical education and sports lessons of middle school students with and without learning disabilities. The sample of the study consists of 616 students (208 girls, 408 boys), 304 students diagnosed with learning disabilities and 312 students without a diagnosis, aged 10-12, studying in middle schools affiliated with the Van Provincial Directorate of National Education. As data collection tools, the "School Social Behavior Scale" was used to measure the students' school social behaviors, the "TGMD-III Test" was used to measure their motor skills, the "Parent Attitude Scale Towards Physical Education and Sports Lessons" was used to measure the parents' attitudes towards physical education and sports lessons, and the "Demographic Information Form" developed by the researcher. Data were analyzed using the SPSS package program. The measurements were evaluated in the statistical analysis with the Kolmogorov-Simirnov test and as a result, it was determined that the data did not show a normal distribution. In non-parametric tests, Mann Whitney U, Spearman correlation and Chi-square tests were used in 2 group comparisons. The significance level in this study was determined as p˂0.05. According to the findings obtained from the research; a significant difference was found in the social competence scores and negative social behavior scores of middle school students diagnosed with and without learning disabilities (p<0.05). The social competence scores and negative social behavior scores of middle school students not diagnosed with learning disabilities were found to be high. A significant difference was found between the attitudes of the parents of middle school students diagnosed and not diagnosed with learning disabilities towards physical education class (p<0.05). The total and all sub-dimension scores of the parents of middle school students not diagnosed with learning disabilities towards physical education class were found to be higher. A significant difference was found between the motor skills of students diagnosed with and not diagnosed with learning disabilities (p<0.05). The motor skills of students not diagnosed with learning disabilities were higher. As a result; while the social competence scores of middle school students not diagnosed with learning disabilities were found to be positive, the negative social behavior scores of diagnosed students were found to be lower. The motor skills of undiagnosed students and the attitudes of their parents towards physical education classes were found to be higher than those of students diagnosed with learning disabilities.