Preconditions

When participating in sport events, children and young people need to be divided into different groups. There are two basic preconditions influencing the forming of groups: either the members of a group know each other already, or they come together for the first time for this specific occasion.

An already established group can be a school class or a kindergarten group. It is important that this group already includes both disabled and non-disabled children to allow integration. With this group, there is no need for an amble phase of getting to know each other. Activities then should concentrate on new abilities and capacities and encourage a change of perspectives and attitudes, thus challenging established negative attitudes and misbehaviour within the group.

A new group may come together for a specific event or purpose. In this group nobody or very few participants know each other. Newly formed groups need sufficient time to get to know each other and start building trusting relations. In this case, easy, culturally well-known sports and games may serve as "ice-breakers". Only after this phase, should trainers introduce activities that are new to the group.

Establishing groups

After having clarified preconditions regarding the participants, groups can be formed according to the recommended criteria listed above: disabled and non-disabled children, gender, age, type of disability and level of expectation, motivation and skills.

In general, participants can either be organised into homogenous or heterogeneous groups:

The advantage of a homogeneous group is that the participants have similar objectives, abilities and skills. There is no need to coordinate many different needs, thus the group can get started quickly.

Heterogeneous groups, on the other hand, offer the only real opportunity for integration. Integrated sport groups bring together different demands, orientations and capabilities. This calls for mutual understanding, respect and tolerance. The degree of difficulty in a heterogeneous group must be adapted to the potential of each individual. Only then will real cooperation be possible. This approach offers interesting opportunities as well as considerable risks; the latter may be reduced by a good preparation, a long enough initial phase of getting to know each other and close attention from the trainers during the games. Within heterogeneous groups, where the differences are great, the trainer should try to individualise and differentiate the tasks according to all the children participating in this group. Soon after the start of a game, the trainer should accept a passive role and let the children find their own solutions together to any problems that arise. This approach strengthens the team spirit within the group.