EN
Introduction: For most children, among them with intellectual disabilities, the family is the first and the most important factor in the development. Parents influence indirectly on the motor area by their preferences in the educational methods. The family is an area in which proactive behavior patterns are transmitted. Involving the child with intellectual disability into sport activities is usually in the families where parents have positive attitude to sport. Important is the fact that parents join into the first activities from the very beginning. The main aim of this study was the statement: which elements of family background of intellectual disability children have the influence on taking up sport activities. Factors, which were significant in activating children into sport activities were: the parents’ attitude to sport activities, the parents’ attitude towards children, the family’s social-economic status and the environmental social-sport capital.Material and methods: The results obtained from 121 families with children with moderately intellectual disabilities in aged 8 to 11 years. Participation in Special Olympics has become the basis for the division of subjects into two groups - the active and passive children. The testing kit has been prepared consisting of several distinct measurement tools: The Scale of Parents' Attitudes Towards Sports Activities, Parent’s Attitude Questionnaire, Environmental Questionnaire of Social-Sport Capital, Scale of Social-Economic Status of Families.Results: The results show clearly that the strongest factors determining inclusion of a children with intellectual disabilities in sport are the attitudes of parents to promote sport and the availability of social-sport capital. The study found that there is no correlation between social-economic status of the family, parent’s attitude and sport activity. Conclusions: The leading proposal emerging from this work is the significant impact of the ecosystem resources of a child with an intellectual disability on its commitment to pursue sporting activities.