BOOK REVIEWS

No abstract available for this article.     

Children with profound retardation and their joint training with parents

ABSTRACT

The development of motor activity in children with profound mental retardation employing a special method based on mother/father dyads with her/his child is described. Both parent and child are jointly trained on the basis of a specific programme of lessons which is combined with a home training programme. The main advantages of the method are: high efficiency of lessons, effective instructions for home training, close emotional contact between parents and children, promotion of parents’ optimism and improvement of children's communication. Within this brief characterisation the content and organisation of joint training lessons are also described.     

Use of performance-enhancing drugs and the Internet

The use of physical performance-enhancing drugs is not limited to professional sports only, but has also been reported as common practice in recreational sports. A significant amount of epidemiological studies have highlighted the collective of fitness center visitors to be a high-risk group for using performance-enhancing drugs. From a sociological perspective, however, the decision to use performance-enhancing drugs (e.g., doping in the context of high-performance sport) is not an individual phenomenon only, but rather a result of social opportunity structures. This research article gives insight into enhancing-related Internet forums, in which the expertise of using and applying substances is passed on step by step. Using selected criminological learning theories, the “doping talk” in these social networks is hermeneutically reanalyzed and the Internet is exposed as a previously under-analyzed option for acquiring knowledge on the use of performance-enhancing drugs. This article shows that users of “doping platforms” are highly informed about doping and this offer of information acts like a knock-on effect to athletes who have so far abstained from doping. Consequently, future prevention models against the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs should consider the subcultural background of the milieu in which the athletes act.