Effects of exercise and sport on children with down syndrome: A systematic review

Purpose of the research; to provide comprehensive information about the subject by evaluating the studies on the effects of exercise and sports on psychomotor, cognitive and social emotional areas in children with Down Syndrome. The literature review was carried out in Bursa Uludağ University E-Library, Pubmed and Google Scholar databases. In the literature review, "sports in children with down syndrome", "exercise in children with down syndrome", "training in children with down syndrome", "sports in children with down syndrome", "exercise in children with down syndrome", "training in children with down syndrome" are key words are used. Randomized controlled studies, experimental studies, quasi-experimental studies, single group experimental studies, causal and case control studies between the years 2010-2020 were included in the study. As a result of the search, 1214 articles were reached. 33 articles whose eligibility was evaluated according to the inclusion criteria were included in this review. The quality of the studies included in the systematic review was evaluated by two researchers who are experts in physical education and sports for the disabled. Experts evaluated the quality of the studies independently. Cohen's Kappa analysis was conducted to determine the harmony between the evaluator scores of the experts who evaluated the research. When the findings of the studies included in the systematic review were examined, it was seen that exercise and sports had positive effects on psychomotor, cognitive and affective areas in children with Down Syndrome. However, there is a need to examine these effects on a larger sample and to conduct longer-term intervention studies. Keywords: sports in children with down syndrome, exercise in children with down syndrome, training in children with down syndrome