Posted on March 13, 2024 in Author insights with tags
After several years in the making, the book Promoting Physical Activity and Fitness: Supporting Individuals with Childhood-Onset Disabilities was published in March 2023! Twenty-six authors, including the two editors, contributed to the book by providing our intended readers, people living with these disabilities, their families and the professionals who support them (health care workers, educators and community coaches and volunteers) with scientific evidence as well as with clinical and lived experience relevant to physical activity and fitness promotion. The book is an international collaboration, and we are grateful to the authors and the staff at Mac Keith Press for their support of the project and for their day-to-day support of people living with a childhood onset disability and their families. As we reflect on our experience of bringing our publication to fruition, we are also reminded of how it took place within the context of our own lives, with its challenges such as the COVID pandemic, the loss of loved ones, and illnesses as well as with its joys such as births, adoptions and professional accomplishments.
Since the book was published, we have been working with Mac Keith Press to get the word out. The editors produced a podcast that explains the book’s aims, intended audience, origins, content, structure, key messages and impact. It is available on YouTube here.
The book was presented at the Mac Keith Press kiosk at conferences of interest to our readers in 2022 and 2023. These included those of the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD) in Barcelona (2022) and Ljubljana (2023) and the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) in Las Vegas (2022) and Chicago (2023). While at the EACD conference in Ljubljana, Reidun Jahnsen participated in a podcast produced by Curtin University in Perth, Australia where she discussed the book. The book was also introduced to pediatric physical therapists working in Quebec, Canada at a provide-wide clinical conference. As part of this introduction, Désirée B. Maltais produced a short video to highlight the book’s contents. In addition, the book was promoted at the International Symposium of Adapted Physical Activity (ISAPA) in New Zealand in June 2023.
In Scandinavia, the big launch of the book took place during an international symposium on “participation research” (CAPA2022 –“Capturing the magic – Participation for all”) that was held in the Beitostølen Healthsports Center, which is situated in the magnificent Norwegian mountains. This was the perfect place for the launch given that four professionals at the Center are authors of five chapters in the book and the main intervention at the Center is adapted physical activity and the Center welcomes 200 multi professional interns every year. We hope these students become avid readers of the book and promoters of its contents!
After the launch in Beitostølen, the book was also presented to members of the Swedish Cerebral Palsy Association (CP Sweden). The book has also been introduced to healthcare professionals working with individuals with disabilities in northern Sweden and has been featured in lectures for physiotherapy students at Luleå University of Technology and at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada.
Linda Sandström, who has lived experience of cerebral palsy says: “I have benefited from the book as my current personal trainer, who assists me with my habilitation training due to my left-sided unilateral cerebral palsy, read the book. She gained valuable new knowledge and ideas regarding modified and adapted training and testing to make my workouts more effective and safer. The book also provided her with confirmation that what we were already doing was good and aligned with scientific principles.”
Promoting the book is our current focus. We are also reflecting on where we go from here to help support implementation of the recommendations in the book. Any comments from blog readers would be greatly appreciated!
Promoting Physical Activity and Fitness by Désirée B. Maltais and Reidun Jahnsen is available to buy in paperback or eBook.
Related books
Promoting Physical Activity and Fitness: Supporting Individuals with Childhood-Onset Disabilities
Available as:
Ebook, Paperback