[Sports and motor development in rehabilitation of the disabled in the South of France - report of a study visit (author's transl)].

Within the framework of a study visit conducted to prepare for a German-French student exchange programme, various schools for the disabled as well as medical and vocational rehabilitation facilities had been visited, located in the vicinity of Toulouse and Auch in the South of France. Our interest focussed on programmes for motor development and stimulaton. Although the provision of physical education in not stipulated in the educational curricula, and notwithstanding a rather unfavourable general situation, promising beginnings have been noted. With the exception of leisure-time activities motor development is ignored in the vocational training facilities, while the clinics are limited to therapeutic activities. Model character can be attributed to the efforts undertaken by the YMCA in cooperation with the sports institute of Toulouse University (U.E.R.E.P.S.), aimed at comprehensive development and stimulation of the disabled within the YMCA-operated sheltered workshops which provide manifold opportunities for sports activities along various organisational patterns. Where coordination of activities exists among the facilities, it does not include the areas of physical education and sports. Even more so than in the Federal Republic of Germany, insight into the need for systematic development of the disabled through physical exercise seems to be lacking.