Good Sports
December 14, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Sports “tap into an autistic person’s basic needs for social and physical interaction and participation in purpose-driven tasks,” according to Chantal Sicile-Kira, whose autistic son is an adult and who’s written three books on autism. Sicile-Kira is quoted in an article in today’s Orange County Register about the first school-district sponsored sports league for autistic children. The league was started by Kathy Murphy, a speech language pathologist at Harbor View Elementary in Newport Beach; soccer, T-ball, and track are offered. No one keeps score and, during a soccer game, “……everybody, no matter what team they were aligned with, cheered when a player found the back of the net.”
My son Charlie’s been in Challenger league t-ball and tried soccer and basketball for special needs kids. One of the main challenges for Charlie is the ball—-keeping track of it, knowing what to do with it, not to mention catching and throwing; bowling’s been a bit easier as it’s simply a matter of getting the ball and rolling (dropping) it down the bowling lane. Add in several other children running or standing around and various teachers and parents also on the field and it’s even more difficult.
There’s no denying the need for regular physical activity for Charlie (he and Jim just came back from a December bike ride), and Sicile-Kira’s quote rings true to me. At school, Charlie doesn’t find it easy to have to sit for so much of the day. His teachers had been taking him outside for walks but after he got upset suddenly, seemingly, last week, there’s been much more hesitance to take him out. He’s been walking in the hallway, which of course is not the same as getting outside and into the fresh air. (Yes, I’m trying to see what’s going on with this; walking outside is a frequent activity that Charlie does with us.)
At a time when one hears more and more about closures and budget cuts, asking for a sports league for autistic kids is not going to be easy. But in this case, the benefits, I would say, are not to be missed.
We’re enjoying a small group (4kids) integrated gymnastics program for the little one – at a “normal” gym club. He also takes piano 15min/wk with a retired school teacher – she’s amazing!!
And Karate for the elder w/ a Martial Arts Canada, totally integrated program. There’s a girl with Down’s in his group.
Little boy will join the Karate club in a year… they will give him 1:1 support as necessary to teach him.
There’s lots of “normal” programs out there that will take all children… those are the one’s we want for our boys.
S.
Boo was in Challenger t-ball last year and it was such a wonderful experience. I can’t say enough great things about those volunteers. They were so good with Boo and the other kids on his team. We moved that summer, otherwise it’s quite possible he probably would still be playing.
so far we are doing really well at soccer, it is at the local club and he has a few of his friends from school in the team and a great coach, I’m hoping next season we do as well, his skill level improved and his movement too. We also did swimming lessons through school, we were all a bit nervous and they wanted his aide there too but he was amazing, we are signed up for more classes in two weeks and while on his registration autism is noted they haven’t said I need to be in the water with him.
We will take soccer as far as he wants to go, I love that it is local and everyone can play.
i had a terrible time on team sports growing up…that was basically my parents catch-all solution for the differences. “He’s not making friends…put him on a baseball team”.
However…they did eventually try taekwondo and that went extrememly well. There aren’t the social dynamics at work, or at least not as much; you can focus on your own performance of the moves. it was good exercise, good confidence-building.
My parents group-based Normalcy Solution accidentally helped this one time.
This fall, I was fortunate enough to be tapped by a local non-profit to put together a soccer program for children on the autism spectrum.
We had about 45 kids, aged 2 to 15, all of them on the spectrum, running around, kicking the ball (occasionally picking it up) and having a great time. We weren’t interested in rules or about keeping score, so we didn’t. We just let the kids have fun and gave the parents a chance to cheer.
One of the most heartening things about the entire endeavor was the level of involvement and enthusiasm demonstrated by our youth volunteers. We had at least a dozen youths working as peer assistants and they all had as much fun as the kids.
We had numerous parents come up to us and thank us for putting together the program. In the end, all it took was a venue (we used a local church gymnasium), a few goals, a few soccer balls, and a group of dedicated volunteers. Our spectrum kids took those ingredients and made something magic.