Öz
Education is expected to help individuals to be developed at the highest level by revealing their hidden powers and abilities. Inadequacy and disability of children in need of special education; regardless of the basic right of education at any age must be done absolute education service. Sports is one of the important factors that helps children with need special education to take their places in daily life, to connect them to life by socializing, to orient themselves with motivation and to accept the idea that disability is not an obstacle to continue living. In this study, it was aimed to determine sport participation motivation levels of children who need special education according to some variables. Method; descriptive survey model from quantitative research methods was used in the research. A total of 60 (20 Girls, 40 Boys) students from Mersin special education practice schools participated in the study. In the research, a personal information form prepared by the researchers and the "Scale of Motivation for Participation in Sports in Persons with Disabilities (SMPSPD)" developed by Tekkurşun, İlhan, Esentürk and Kan (2018) were used as a data collection tool. In the analysis of the data obtained in the research; frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation as well as t-test, Pearson Moment Correlation, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. According to the findings; The mean scores of internal and external motivation of students who participated in sports activities were significantly higher than those who did not participate in sports activities. While there was no significant difference according to gender, a positive significant difference was found between the age and intrinsic motivation level of the students. As a result; It can be concluded that students who need special education have high motivation to participate in sports.