Aces For Autism
June 17, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Two brothers, Jack and James Collier of Gastonia, North Carolina, created Aces for Autism, a week-long tennis clinic for autistic children. They came up with the idea in honor of their 12-year-old sister, Oliver. From the Gaston Gazette:
“There aren’t really a whole lot of sports opportunities for kids with autism,” said James, 15. “Olivia loves to be outside and we thought maybe other kids would love to do this, too.”
……
“I was a little nervous coming in,” said James. “What if it doesn’t work? But it all turned out pretty nicely.”
Added Jack, 18: “It was challenging at the beginning but they got the hang of it more by the end… once we got the basic ideas through to them, it went a lot more smoothly.”The highlight for the brothers was seeing Olivia play tennis for the first time.
There’s a tennis court near our New Jersey condo and my parents gave us some old raquets and a can of balls…… now if I can just remember how to keep score.
I got to play tennis once. I think I did fairly good for a first try. I had no idea how to keep score or anything, though, I just tried to get the ball to the other side.
I can’t remember how to keep score anymore….
Don’t let scoring keep you from playing. I play air hockey with a boy I work with, and while his table does do scoring, he never turns it on, nor do I tell him to. Maybe one day, we’ll start caring about score. For now, there are enough other things, like the hand eye coordination, to make it a worthwhile venture.
Hand-eye coordination is definitely still a struggle for Charlie; he never got too far in little league with the bat and the ball on the tee. Maybe this might be less pressured, too, then with two teams of players and parents waiting for him to do something.
“Don’t let scoring keep you from playing. I play air hockey with a boy I work with, and while his table does do scoring, he never turns it on, nor do I tell him to. Maybe one day, we’ll start caring about score. For now, there are enough other things, like the hand eye coordination, to make it a worthwhile venture.”
Very, very true.
Cliff