Assessment instruments for children in the aquatic environment: a systematic review

Abstract

The aim was to identify and describe assessment protocols for children’s aquatic behaviour through a systematic review and discuss the results using the aquatic competence concept. The search was carried out on SPORTDiscus with Full Text, MEDLINE Complete, EMBASE, Web of Science and PubMed. Articles, theses and dissertations in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French were included, without restriction on the year and type of study. The search found 14,099 studies, and 62 were considered eligible. Twenty-one instruments for children without disabilities were identified, and these include tasks related to swimming itself and use the quality of task execution as an evaluation criterion. Fifteen instruments were also identified for children with disabilities. These include tasks related to adaptation to the aquatic environment and use the level of independence in executing the task as an evaluation criterion. To be competent in the aquatic environment, a child must know how to perform tasks of different aquatic sports and be able to apply them in environments with different characteristics. In this regard, the assessment instruments found were limited. Thus, discussing the concept of aquatic competence to qualify swimming teaching programs is urgent.

Keywords: teaching; aquatic competence; evaluation.