On November 25 Vyatka State University held the Festival of Adaptive Sports, organized by the Pedagogical Institute of the University. The main goal of the event was to sum up the results of work with those who are officially called "persons with disabilities”. All the methods were developed by specialists of the Department of adaptive physical training and teaching methods by request of Kirov Center for Prosthetics and Orthopedics.
The cooperation turned out to be successful - soon the whole Faculty of physical culture and sports of Vyatka State University joined it, as well as VyatSU psychologists and teachers: it is quite obvious that people with disabilities need not only special physical education – they mostly need a lot of comprehensive assistance, including resocialization.
The close cooperation of Kirov Center for Prosthetics and Orthopedics with Vyatka State University, as well as implementation of the joint project "Invasport" made it possible to conduct a joint research and develop a program of adaptive physical recreation and rehabilitation of persons with musculoskeletal disorders (amputation of limbs). The project participants realized their potential in various kinds of adaptive physical culture and adaptive sports, such as sitting volleyball, table tennis, swimming, and exercising in gym.
The festival started from seminars and master classes, touching on various aspects of physical recreation and rehabilitation of disabled people.
After that participants moved to the spacious sports hall of Vyatka State University to watch an interesting program. First, there were boules competitions among children with cerebral palsy, sensory impairments and intellectual disabilities. Then the turn of adult athletes came: young people with amputation of limbs played sitting volleyball with a team of Vyatka State University students. At the end the participants of the festival were awarded.
The festival program continued in a round table format followed by a serious talk about further development of activities for rehabilitation of disabled people. Among the participants of the meeting there were Georgy Barminov, acting Minister of Sports and Youth Policy of Kirov region, Vladimir Shabardin, Commissioner for Children's Rights in Kirov region, some representatives of Kirov Center for Prosthetics and Orthopedics, parents of disabled children.
Galina Kovyazina, Head of VyatSU Department of adaptive physical training and teaching methods could not help smiling: the specialists of the department proved themselves to be real professionals, and their innovation has finally resulted in a grandiose project of great importance for the entire region!
