Singapore Disability Sports Council

In this section...

• What is Disability Sports?
• Benefits of Disability Sports
• Types of Disability Sports
• Types of Disabilities
• Disability Sports Classification
• Sports Partnership Promotion Grant (SPPG)
• Interest Sports Group (ISG) Grant

Types of Disabilities

There are several types of disabilities that may be divided into the following major disability grouping such as:

1. Amputee

The term ‘amputee’ includes those individuals who have at least one major joint in a limb missing (that is, elbow, wrist, knee or ankle). It includes cases where the amputation is through the ankle or the wrist in which no functional movement remains at that joint.

Amputations are either congenital or acquired. Congenital amputation occurs as a result of a failure of the foetus to develop properly during the first three months of gestation. Acquired amputations can be the result of disease, trauma or tumour.

2. Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is an all inclusive term used to describe a disorder of movement and posture due to damage to an area or areas of the brain that control and co-ordinate muscle tone, reflexes, posture and movement (Jones, 1988). The degree of brain damage can vary considerably between individuals with cerebral palsy. Thus the symptoms of each individual with cerebral palsy also vary considerably. Cerebral palsy is a condition and not a disease, it is non-progressive and non-curable. The severity of the disability ranges from extreme tightness or looseness of the muscles of the body, improper head, shoulder and hip control to slight speech impairment.

3. Deafness (Hearing Impairment)

Deafness or hearing loss is a global problem. According to the World Health Organisation, there are at least 42 million people in the world over the age of three years with at least moderate hearing disability. In Singapore, approximately 6 out of 1000 Primary One students each year are diagnosed to have hearing loss (>30db).

‘Deafness’ is a hearing loss which makes it impossible to understand speech through hearing alone, even if a hearing aid is used. Usually, an alternative mode of communication is required in order to communicate with a deaf person (example, lip-reading, signing, demonstration or written messages). Deafness in children can be attributed to two causes: congenital or acquired. A typical congenital situation consists of prenatal causes which affect the baby before birth, such as:

• Rubella, hereditary congenital abnormalities and other causes which can affect the baby during or immediately after delivery;
• premature, oxygen deprivation. Acquired or post-natal causes occur after childbirth.

Major examples include severe jaundice and meningitis. It also includes potentially treatable causes such as fluid in the middle ear.

4. Blindness (Visual Impairment)

The definition of blindness varies from ‘total lack of sight’ to definitions such as ‘those people who require social services as a result of their vision problems’. Thus there are varying degrees of vision impairments. Some of the more commonly referred to types of vision impairments may be described in the following test.

An athlete standing 2 metres away from a coach may see:

• the coach but not the features around them – Tunnel vision or Loss of Peripheral Vision.
• a dark area surrounded by peripheral objects such as trees – Loss of Central Vision.
• a blurred object – Blurred Vision.
• only light, with little or no visual acuity – Light Perception.
• only darkness – Total Blindness.

5. Intellectual Disability (Learning Disabilities)

The most widely accepted definition of intellectual disability is that produced by the American Association of Mental Retardation (AAMR). A person with an intellectual disability, as defined by the AMMR, must have:

1. A significantly sub-average general IQ. The AMMR defines this as an IQ of 70 or less on a standard measure of intelligence.
2. Limitations in two or more of the following adaptive skills: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics and leisure and work.
3. Acquired their condition before 18 years old.

6. Physical Disability

Some of the more common conditions which may result in individuals being eligible to compete as wheelchair athletes include:

• traumatic paraplegia and quadriplegia (ie spinal cord injuries)
• spina bifida
• poliomyelitis
• amputees (particularly double leg amputees)
• cerebral palsy
• all non ambulant les autres athletes

7. Muscular Dystrophy

Some of the other major forms of muscular dystrophy include:

Facio-Scapulo Humeral muscular dystrophy

This affect the shoulder and upper arm and also in the weakening of the facial muscles.

Limb Girdle muscular dystrophy

Weakness in the shoulder girdle muscle or the hip and thigh muscles usually occurs in teenage years.

Myotonic muscular dystrophy

This usually occurs in early adulthood and results in progressive muscle weakness.

8. Down’s Syndrome

Down’s syndrome is the most common cause of moderate intellectual disability. The primary cause lies within the mysteries of genetics. It is a genetically based disease based on a malfunction in “Trisomy 21” in our bodies. A person with Down’s syndrome has many characteristic features which are noticeable in many variable forms.

It is usual for a young person with Down’s syndrome to have up to seven of the 125 features associated with Down’s syndrome. With the exception of some form of intellectual disability there is no one feature that is present in all individuals with Down’s syndrome.

Young people with Down’s syndrome also exhibit a wide variety of physical features and can have a variety of associated conditions such as orthopaedic disorders, sensory impairments and obesity.