Abstract
It is reported that individuals with intellectual disabilities, or students from practical elementary schools, have a lower body weight and height, on average, than their intact peers, though these differences have not been confirmed statistically.
On the contrary many studies have concluded that there are more obese individuals in the population of persons with intellectual disabilities. A more frequent occurrence of a poor posture and unstable state of health was also ascertained.
The article is conceived as research in the problem of somatic characteristics of people with intellectual disabilities (with an emphasis on children and youth), or pupils from practical elementary schools (including Roma children) and should give a comprehensive overview of this rarely-published theme. The data is enhanced by the results of the actual survey performed with 153 students (61 girls and 92 boys; an average age of 10.62 ± 0.56 years) from Prague practical elementary schools.