The study will be carried out on 30 children with Down syndrome (trisomy 21) of both sexes, with ages ranging from 7 to 12 years old. Children will be recruited from schools for special needs. Children will be randomly assigned into two equal groups (control and study groups), 15 for each group. The control group will receive a selected physical therapy program only, while the study group will receive the same selected physical therapy program as the control group in addition to aerobic exercise in the form of treadmill training. The Arabic version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) will be used to assess sleep problems, while a handheld spirometer will be used to assess pulmonary functions (forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC ratio, and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR)) pre- and post-intervention.
The study will be conducted to determine the effect of aerobic training on sleep problems and pulmonary functions in children with Down syndrome.