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MOTOR ACTIVITY AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL 

GROWTH IN STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES 

 
1Prof. Ifeoma Grace Nwankwo and 2Dr. Obinna Emmanuel Ezeh 

1Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria 
2Department of Educational Foundations, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria 

 
Keywords:     

Inclusive Education, Motor 

Activity, Disability and 

Learning, Social 

Development, Physical 

Education,  

  

  

ABSTRACT   
This research explores the fundamental role of motor activity in the 
educational development of students with disabilities within the school 
context. Despite increasing awareness of its benefits, physical activity is often 
undervalued in educational systems, particularly in Italy, where outdated 
perspectives continue to hinder its full potential as an inclusive tool. The 
study aims to emphasize that motor activity is not solely about physical 
enhancement but is intrinsically linked to cognitive, emotional, and social 
development—dimensions especially critical for students with disabilities. 
Motor activity represents a primary human need, with the power to 
significantly influence the growth and learning processes of individuals. For 
students with disabilities, physical education offers a dynamic and inclusive 
platform through which they can engage meaningfully with peers, build self-
esteem, and develop essential life skills. In this light, motor activities can act 
as a bridge, connecting educational objectives with the broader goal of 
holistic development. 
The educational value of physical activity is now globally recognized, as it 
contributes to the acquisition of higher-order cognitive functions such as 
concentration, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. Furthermore, it 
fosters social interactions, promotes inclusion, and supports the development 
of relational competencies that are crucial in both academic and professional 
environments. When integrated effectively into the school curriculum, 
physical activity can transform into a powerful pedagogical tool that 
promotes equity, participation, and personal growth. 
This paper underscores the urgent need to reframe motor activity in schools 
not as a peripheral or optional practice, but as a central element of inclusive 
education. By doing so, schools can provide meaningful learning 
opportunities for all students, ensuring that those with disabilities are not 
only included but fully empowered to thrive within the educational system 
and beyond. 

 
  

Introduction  
Motor activity represents a fundamental human 
necessity, embodying the innate need for movement 
that is deeply rooted in the physical, cognitive, and 
emotional development of every individual. Far from 
being limited to the enhancement of physical fitness, 
motor activity plays a crucial role in shaping cognitive 
functions, mental well-being, and, significantly, 
socio-relational skills. This is particularly vital for 
individuals with disabilities, for whom structured 

physical activity can offer an invaluable channel for 
expression, interaction, and personal growth. 
In contemporary educational discourse, the 
importance of physical activity has been widely 
recognized at the international level. It is increasingly 
viewed not merely as an auxiliary component of the 
school curriculum, but as a central educational tool 
capable of supporting holistic development. Despite 
this growing recognition, in countries such as Italy, 
the full potential of motor activity—especially in 

 



                                                               Global Journal of Education and Allied Research| ISSN: 2837-3707   

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inclusive education settings—remains underutilized 
and often overlooked due to lingering outdated 
perceptions. 
Within the school environment, motor activity has 
the capacity to foster not only academic learning but 
also the development of higher-order cognitive skills 
such as critical thinking, concentration, and 
emotional regulation. Moreover, it nurtures the social 
and interpersonal skills that are essential in both 
educational and professional contexts. For students 
with disabilities, these aspects are particularly 
meaningful, as physical activity can provide 
opportunities for integration, self-confidence, and 
the affirmation of personal identity within a shared 
learning space. 
Given these multidimensional benefits, motor 
activity should be recognized as a key element in 
inclusive educational practices. Its proper 
implementation can promote equitable learning 
experiences, reduce barriers to participation, and 
contribute to the creation of supportive and adaptive 
learning environments that value diversity and 
individuality. Reframing physical education as a 
transformative educational experience—rather than a 
recreational break—can lead to more inclusive, 
effective, and human-centered schooling for all 
learners. 
1. Disability and movement  
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity 
and rights”, this is what is enshrined in article one of 
the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and 
which shows that disabled people also have the same 
fundamental rights as other citizens. With the Madrid 
Declaration of 2003, equal opportunities between 
able-bodied and disabled people are claimed, 
affecting various aspects: social, work, school and 
professional education, training in new technologies, 
social and health services, sports and leisure[1]. For 
this to happen it is necessary that everyone, starting 
from the individual citizen and then reaching the 
community as a whole, takes action to enhance and 
valorise diversity, just as is established by Article 3 of 
the Italian Constitution: "All citizens have equal 
social dignity and they are equal before the law, 
without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, 
political opinions, personal and social conditions." 
The task of the individual person, up to the State, is 
to be able to eliminate all possible obstacles, both 
from a social and economic point of view, which could 
affect the freedom and equality of citizens, thus 
negatively influencing the overall development of the 

human person and consequently the participation of 
all in the political, economic and social organization 
of the country [2].  
Article 1 of the Framework Law number 104/92 states 
that:  
 there must be full respect for human dignity 
and the rights of freedom and autonomy of the person 
with a disability and full integration/inclusion in the 
family, school, work and society must be promoted;  
 conditions that are considered disabling and 
that can impede the development of the human 
person must be prevented and/or removed, 
compromising the achievement of the maximum 
possible autonomy and the participation of the 
disabled person in the life of the community;  
 interventions must be prepared aimed at 
overcoming states of marginalization and social 
exclusion of the disabled person.  
These and many other points have led, nowadays, to 
a vision that gives great importance to the quality of 
life of the person suffering from disability; this means 
having great consideration of socio-relational factors, 
placing them at the center of the entire system, which 
inevitably cannot underestimate free time which is an 
important indicator of quality [3]. The feeling of well-
being is an important indicator of the level of quality 
of life, even more so for people with disabilities, as it 
is precisely by exploiting free time (for example 
practicing any physical activity) that it is possible to 
eliminate the sense of impotence in favor of the sense 
of gratification [4]. Being able to make the most of the 
free time factor, for people with disabilities, means 
being able to benefit from everything that is offered 
by the place where you live, fully benefiting from the 
citizen rights that everyone enjoys. Often when we 
talk about activities that can be carried out during 
free time, we think of any form of physical activity 
capable of including all "types" of people, from young 
to old, whether male or female, and above all disabled 
or otherwise.  
Sporting activity can be defined as the set of all those 
activities, mental and physical, aimed at improving 
and maintaining the psychophysical system of the 
person, and entertaining those who practice it. 
Games, physical activity and recreational activities, 
even if their potential has not yet been exploited to 
the full, offer the possibility of starting to practice 
sports, also understood as a phase of affirmation of 
personal autonomy and the gratification that 
inevitably generates positive effects on self-esteem [5].  
Promoting motor activity for people with disabilities 



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means recognizing the social, educational and 
training value inherent in it, since in addition to 
promoting cognitive development, the motor 
experience becomes a reason for emancipation and 
growth enhanced by constructive comparison with 
others, the perception of their own efficiency [6].  
The practice of physical activity must be understood 
as a means with an educational aim whose 
effectiveness is directly proportional to the playful 
aspect. Doing physical activity means not only trying 
to improve the physical component, but certainly 
increasing the cognitive aspect necessary for the 
motor learning phase, the axis of socialization that is 
linked to the sporting world, and finally the 
improvement of self-esteem [7]; therefore, from a 
disability perspective, the essential role of physical 
activity is evident as, thanks to it, it is possible to 
enhance the disabled person.  
Motor practice stimulates and enhances the abilities 
of the person suffering from disability, encouraging 
social interaction, in order to create links with the 
outside world in order to allow the construction and 
enrichment of one's personality [8]. Furthermore, we 
must not forget the importance of discussion and the 
emotions that derive from it, which allow and 
encourage the growth not only of the disabled person 
but of the entire group.  
It is thanks to sports practice that the disabled person 
receives benefits from a physical point of view in 
order to avoid the appearance of pathologies such as 
obesity, while from a psychological point of view, the 
social aspect must not be neglected as it is possible to 
avoid a possible social isolation[9].  What has been 
said is made feasible by the fact that sporting activity 
"forces" the disabled person to interact with the 
external environment, avoiding the onset of negative 
aspects such as motor regression or even attenuated 
or dulled curiosity. The practice of any form of motor 
activity improves the ability to process information, 
improves society's attitudes towards the person 
suffering from disability and vice versa [10].  Therefore, 
it can be defined as a moment of learning and 
personal knowledge due to the multiple external 
stimuli that favor knowledge and learning.  
2. Pedagogy, disability and school  
Disability should not be considered a permanent 
factor as it depends on the external environment, so 
it would be possible to make it disappear completely 
or almost. To establish how much a person affected 
by a disability is influenced by it, indicators have been 
established (the same ones used for able-bodied 

people) capable of evaluating the quality of life[11]. To 
evaluate the well-being of a person's life it is 
important to analyze aspects such as health, self-
efficacy, sense of trust, belonging and degree of self-
esteem. When it comes to well-being, the 
fundamental dimensions to analyze are adaptation 
and social support, furthermore it is possible to 
subject variables such as the level of affection (both 
positive and negative) and the overall judgment on 
the quality of life to an accurate evaluation. Social 
relationships have a great influence on subjective 
well-being. Belonging to a group, and in an even 
broader vision, to a community, turns out to be 
fundamental for the well-being of a disabled person, 
so also the quality of social relationships, which can 
be defined as the interaction between the subject and 
the context, are of fundamental importance for it to 
be fully included in any context.  
“Man is a social animal”, this is what was stated 
by Aristotle, and it means that any person needs 
to relate to all the actors in the surrounding 
world. This means stating that everyone needs to 
feel loved, cared for and have any need satisfied, 
be it physical or emotional. The above establishes 
that social and subjective well-being must be 
enhanced to encourage young people to adopt 
correct and healthy lifestyles in order to promote 
the ability to deal with the possible onset of 
problematic situations[12]. Furthermore, 
increasing social well-being allows us to promote 
attitudes of social interaction and social 
acceptance. It is important to promote social 
well-being immediately, from an early age, and 
from this perspective the school has this 
responsibility, as the primary objectives are the 
education and inclusion of all[13]. Furthermore, 
in an extracurricular context, social well-being is 
able to improve the quality of life of people with 
disabilities thanks to the use of various activities, 
including physical activity, during free time. This 
demonstrates the link between physical 
education in school and physical or sporting 
practice outside of school. At school age, pupils 
with disabilities may have problems from the 
point of view of adapting to the demands of the 
school, to which is added difficulty in obtaining 
good levels of social acceptance, in particular, in 
particular, they may rarely experience 



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relationship difficulties with the teacher or, more 
frequently, with the peer group. Furthermore, it 
has been seen that, especially in adolescence, 
disabled students demonstrate greater 
difficulties in creating and managing to maintain 
interactions with their classmates in a stable and 
lasting way over time [14]. All this could have a 
negative impact on the processes of adaptation to 
adult life. The school's task is to train "the adult 
of the future", for which fundamental aspects 
such as a better quality of life must be 
considered, and for this to happen, it is 
important to be able to obtain recognition of 
fundamental rights, in order to protect and 
ensure the maximum possible autonomy for all 
people who need it[15].  When we talk about 
autonomy we refer to multiple points of view: 
personal, work, social and family, all essential to 
make a person with a disability feel an integral 
part of society. This term does not simply refer to 
the care of the person's life in the sense of 
removing the causes of marginalization, but to 
offer the possibility, thanks to tools, 
methodologies, techniques and targeted paths, to 
be an active and proactive part of the choices that 
are made. made and which directly affect the life 
of the disabled person. It is from this perspective 
that the school, through training programs, 
should encourage the development of all the 
skills that will lead to the achievement of 
personal autonomy [16]. The term educate means 
to define the ability to be able to bring it out, in 
order to obtain the truth from the person and not 
introduce it. Therefore, there is a need to exploit 
motor activity as a fundamental element both 
from an educational and a socio-relational point 
of view. The school's task is to be able to create 
the foundations so that life skills (Life Skills), 
understood as the set of personal and relational 
skills, are well structured in the disabled person, 
so as to be able to create correctly and profitable 
bond between himself and the surrounding 
environment. It must therefore be an advocate of 
lifelong learning, capable of providing all the 
effective strategies to be used to resolve any 
problems that may arise in daily life. The school 
context must be the ideal place to design and 

plan the interventions to be implemented to 
create the adult of tomorrow, and in this sense it 
is important that we focus on the development of 
transversal skills in order to favor the structuring 
of the self, of identity of the disabled person[17].   
3. The importance of inclusive teaching in 
schools  
Educating through movement from the early 
years of life is of fundamental importance as it 
allows and promotes knowledge of one's body 
and helps to improve the quality of life[18].  Motor 
activity and movement in general must be 
understood as an educational possibility with an 
indispensable educational value for the 
development of identity and social interactions 
with the surrounding environment and with 
one's classmates[19]. When we talk about team 
motor practice we must think of all the multiple 
situations that favor the stimulation of individual 
initiative. Physical activity for people with 
disabilities can represent a moment of social 
emancipation and individual growth, as 
discussion and collaboration with others can and 
must be understood as the structuring of an 
environment full of significant stimuli.  
The practice of physical activity has fundamental 
values for the development of the person:  
- Helps to express one's creativity;  
- It is an instrument of moral and physical 
elevation; - It's a cultural value.  
Motor activity and motor sciences in the school 
context must be understood as an opportunity 
for everyone, without any distinction, to be able 
to offer their contribution in the process of 
building the identity of disabled and non-
disabled students. In the school context, motor 
practice must not be understood at competitive 
levels, on the contrary it must favor the 
possibility of being able to measure oneself with 
others, but above all with oneself, in order to 
know one's own resources and abilities in order 
to deal with the peer group. The role of motor 
sciences towards the disabled student from a 
scholastic perspective should be to be able to 
enhance individual abilities, increase others to 
the point of fortifying the interested person to 
encourage encounters with the surrounding 



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environment and with the peer group , managing 
to deal with objectives with an increasing degree 
of difficulty[20].  Therefore the purpose of 
physical practice in the school context is to offer 
new possible paths to knowledge and inclusion 
paths, starting right from school, from the first 
levels of education, in order to encourage its 
permanence throughout the entire life cycle. of 
life, so that it can be seen not only from a 
competitive point of view but also and above all 
from the point of view of fun, training, play, 
recreation and therefore as a moment and 
opportunity for growth. Sports practice must be 
understood as an educational strategy to 
overcome the possible onset of social isolation of 
the person suffering from disability [21]. It must 
be understood as a way of being able to see 
oneself in a positive sense, capable of improving 
one's self-image; furthermore, we must not 
forget that learning occurs through experience, 
and it is thanks to it that it is possible to have a 
greater emotional boost capable of helping to 
overcome the onset of any moments of 
discouragement and fragility due to difficulties 
and isolation that could occur outside of 
"protected" environments such as the family[22].  
Finally, we must not forget that when we talk 
about physical activity at school we promote 
positive interdependence, self-confidence and 
self-sufficiency. When the student leaves the 
familiar environment, he does so to enter a new 
group, going against others and experimenting 
with different roles (adversary, companion, ally) 
in order to achieve a common goal. Furthermore, 
sensations, both positive and negative, such as 
the fear of not making it or the fatigue of 
exercising, respect for the rules, commitment to 
school and physical activity, make him feel part 
of the whole environment, making him 
motivated, autonomous and determined in 
dealing with any difficulties that may arise.  
Physical activity in school must be seen as a 
strategic tool of education, which manages to 
pursue the ultimate goal, that is, the socio-
educational well-being of all, in which there are 
equal opportunities, opportunities and 
possibilities of choice. The school connected to 

physical activity allows us to experiment with 
new forms of inclusion, capable of addressing 
everyone and, at the same time, being able to find 
the "suitable paths" for everyone[23]. Finally, we 
must not forget to practice physical activity in the 
school context, it means doing it together, able-
bodied students and those with disabilities, in 
order to enhance the potential, through the 
precise play roles, necessary for the success of the 
activity. All exercises are carried out in the same 
spaces, all together and at the same time, this 
ensures that there are beneficial effects both 
from a psycho-physical and socio-relational 
point of view. As far as the psycho-physical 
aspect is concerned, suffice it to say that motor 
practice at school helps disabled students to have 
greater static and dynamic balance, which is 
necessary in walking, without forgetting that it is 
possible to strengthen the muscular system, 
resistance, strength, favoring a reduction in 
heart rate. The above guarantees the ability to 
orient and move correctly in space, managing to 
improve one's spatio-temporal organizational 
capabilities. All this allows the disabled student 
to acquire greater confidence in everything he 
does but above all towards himself, thus 
increasing his sense of self-confidence. 
Furthermore, from a psychological point of view, 
we must consider that disabled people have 
always encountered difficulties throughout their 
lives, and physical practice combined with the 
school context represents one of the first 
moments of satisfaction due to achieving the goal 
without the help of parents, as motor practice 
stimulates intellect and creativity while keeping 
memory and concentration trained. From a 
socio-relational point of view, school as well as 
physical practice promotes inclusion in the social 
context, as in order to achieve the objective it is 
necessary to collaborate with the other members 
of the team group, managing to encourage the 
construction of identity personal of the disabled 
person [24].    
4. Conclusions  

The school context must be seen as the universe 

in which young people shape their personality on 

a daily basis [25], so it contains the set of all the 



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values that build a single system in which the rich 

world certainly falls of disability to which the 

world of sports practice must be associated, 

which now includes an ever-increasing number 

of children, pupils and adults suffering from 

disabilities.  

The ability to learn through movement is 

something innate that everyone has since birth, 

allowing them to interact with the surrounding 

world and explore it in an active and 

participatory way, promoting the growth of 

knowledge of the surrounding environment[26].    

The body must be understood as the means by 

which we can receive all the most sincere 

information about ourselves, capable, therefore, 

of making us perceive who we are, what we live 

and what we feel. Here movement takes on a 

fundamental role from the point of view of 

learning, understood as the only channel capable 

of positively influencing not only the motor 

sphere, but also the relational, cognitive and 

emotional ones.  

The Italian school boasts a long tradition from 

the point of view of the integration of pupils 

suffering from disabilities, and its role is to 

promote and encourage meetings between 

people "bearers" of different abilities, culture, 

age and social class, it must be able to, also taking 

advantage of what is offered by physical and 

sporting practice, create a single training action 

which has the task of enhancing, enhancing and 

strengthening all skills, thus managing to include 

all students in this process without excluding 

anyone.  

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