Autistic children and sport? | Autism PDD
Also heard Karate was something some asd kids take to. Intend to try it soon.My son would rather do nothing...lol...but we make him do some sports. He is excellent in swimming and skating and plays softball with Special Olympics. We're thinking of bowling too for him with the Special Olympics. Do you have one near you?
Positively Autism (a free online newsletter) had an issue devoted to autism and sports recently. Here's the link:
http://www.positivelyautism.com/volume2issue3/
My son hasn't participated in an organized sports activity since he was 4, when we did Mommy n me gymnastics. It was much too overstimulating for him. He did better later in a class run by a physical therapist with a very small group of kids. Gym at school is also overstimulating for him, but he participates to a varying degree. We don't have many organized sports to pick from in our small-town, so that's the biggest reason why our son hasn't participated (yet).
People have both success stories and failure stories for just about every sport there is, so really it's just a matter of taking advantage of an opportunity or innate interest and then accommodating for best success. Success seems less dependent on the sport itself and more dependent on the attitude of the coaches.
Good luck with everything.
We tried the team sports thing and it didnt work out for him. He had no focus or desire to play and he was so much smaller and weaker that the other kids picked on him. So last year we enrolled him in karate and he loves it ! He just received his red belt and is so proud of his accomplishments. His classmate who has moderate Aspergers (has a shadow) also goes. The mom said it helped him tremendously too.
I do think that sports where the kids can compete individually and still be on a team are best, ie: swimming, martial arts, track&field etc.
You could check into a special needs team, or the special olympics.
Mason was on a special needs baseball team this year...it was perfect for him...every child gets to bat and run the bases...they also play outfield...each child has a buddy that does everything with them...each team plays 2 innings, so it wasn't too long for them. He loved that he was part of a team, and had a uniform. It was nice also, because he would get distracted easily by the planes flying by, and it technically didn't matter.
I have never seen so many smiles and heard so many laughs than I did when we were at those games!!
We did karate and it did not work at all. My ds got very hyper andcompletly unfocused. Scoccer was a little better but he has a hard time
judging movement and would often just stand there with his Hand up
yelling sotp. We did a special needs dance class and he loved it and did
good. I could also see my ds do well at gymnasics or maybe swimming.
We did adaptive t-ball and it was a horrible failure. But, we made him go every week. And I made my husband make him go - because even he was folding! Now, we do swimming lessons weekly. This week - after the first week of school, was really a bad one - but usually he does really well and enjoys swimming. It has taken a LOT of hard work (and a TON of money for private lessons) - but I'm hoping it will evolve into a sport he can participate in the rest of his life. I also would like to get him into tae kwan do - but don't want to attempt that until next summer. He's overwhelmed with kindergarten and swimming lessons already - so I think that's enough. Kindergarten is all-day here - but I think now that they are scheduling in breaks for him twice a day that things will go smoother.
Ds would probably be good at soccer if it was an individual sport!
Ds is starting to show interest in watching football on television. I NEVER thought I would be excited about that! Tumbling/gymnastics was awesome for my son. I can't say he enjoyed it tremendously but he did cooperate and tolerated it. It significantly helped his gross motor skills. It helped that the teacher had significant experience in working with kids with autism and was adamant about mainstreaming all the kids with autism in her classes. She was awesome and I wish I could clone her and move her up to our new town!We have looked into a visual processing disorder but really won't be able to do anything about it until next year. It costs a LOT of money and involves a lot of time - which with all-day kindergarten isn't really feasible. Hoping to do it next summer.
age 8 kids or older also look into capd which is auditory dyslexia which has the same signs as add or adhd. Daniel has this and this why reading/lang. are a big problem for him. This is where the brain can't process things well also. The vowels are the big problems here. 25% of Se kids have visual issues look at pave vision.com. Best of luck school staff are clueless with processing issues.
VT/prisms both can help but cost alot. Daniel used them from k-4 but we quit cause he chewed on the ends of the frames. They helped him very little. He had no seccatic movement at day 1. He is a bad case Dr. shidlofsky said. There is vt for the computer the cost is 258. we do not have.
I find depakote helps Daniel's processing issues.
I sent loads of stuff to them on processing disorder's.
We are welfare bound as it is.
Just this past year we got my little guy into skiing and he loves it.
He is afraid water (I think he will be 21 when he finally takes a shower) but I feel he needs to learn to swim as there is too much water around here. We have an above ground pool and he will be hopefully taking beg. swim lessons this month. He did insist on snorkeling in the pool in Mexico (took 3 days for him to get into it), I finally said try my stuff-HE DID IT!!!!! He does not like the ocean-sensory issues with the sand and it is just too overwhelming.
Nico did the t-ball stuff, said he liked it. But is afraid of the ball coming at him. We will try again if he wants to.
There's no law that says that an autistic child cannot be successful in sports. It depends on the child. My son has played basketball, baseball, and tennis, but his mainstay is baseball. He is a star pitcher for his high school baseball team in a very competetive double A league. He believes, and so do I, that he'll be good enough to play college baseball by the time he graduates. I just hope he's able to pass that darn high school English that I know will be so difficult for him.
I suspect that, as more and more kids with ASD are enrolled in sports, we'll begin to see many more of them emerging as accomplished athletes. Remember, there was a time when running a mile in 4 minutes was deemed impossible--until someone did it. Now it's the norm.
I second the recommendation to visit the April issue of Positively Autism, for some ideas and perhaps a little inspiration. I wish you the best. Please let us know how things are going. Thanks.
Well, given my son's fine and gross motor deficits - team sports would be really difficult for him. He was in PT for over 2 years and still has an extremely difficult time catching and throwing a ball. Also, things just move too fast for him. His processing speed isn't too bad, but he usually requires a direction to be repeated at least once. I just can't imagine a coach having the patience to do that. Unless it would have been his former Head Start bus driver - who does coach young kids - but we moved and I can't make the 3 hour round trip each week to take a class from him! Wish I knew someone around here who would be good....hi,
well my DS is 5,just started kindergarten can run very fast,love to dance and is practicing cart wheels now, so I never really knew where or how to get him in sports but really want to.we live in NY.I am just now researching the ideas always been too scared they is no place for him or no one to teach him so any one with an idea where to start?please share!
thanks!
Gtto mentioned having visual problems with ball sports, and it reminded me of a sensory processing disorder story I read yesterday, about Jess Oppenheimer - a comedy writer and producer of the old "I Love Lucy" show.
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/Jess-Oppenheimer- Story.html
He was almost 30 years old before he finally figured out that he sees differently than other people. Only then was he was able to get a diagnosis and eye exercises that helped (but not cured) his sensory issues. He wrote the following about childhood sports activities:
"I recalled my early attempts to play baseball. When a hit came to me in the field (I never could play the infield – and they let me play the outfield only when no other player could be located), I saw two balls coming at me. Today I make jokes about this, saying I had four hands and two gloves so I caught both of them! But that is not the truth. In the first place, I could not follow the ball as it approached me. It started from the bat, and became two, and at this point I had to look away. However, I developed a fine capacity to judge the trajectory so I could go to the place where it would land. Perhaps I took another instantaneous glance or two as it was on its way. In any event, when it came down I was right there--- and usually missed it!"
"Jumping back to the schoolyard, I recalled my early attempts to ride a bicycle. I was able, after a long period of trying, to ride all right as long as I was moving in a straight line and traveling rather fast. Curves were a big problem, I was never able to master one little maneuver which all the other fellows handled with consummate ease. This was to ride a bike between the uprights of a basketball backboard. These uprights were almost four feet apart, but nine times out of ten I ran into them instead of going through. In a much more complex and confused manner than can possibly be told, there were four uprights instead of two, which made three possible passageways and I had no ability to choose the right one, since they constantly moved in relation to each other."
Oh athletics! I work at a camp for kids with AD/HD and HFA. We do sports every day and most of the kids love it! One of the biggest hits this year was bowling. Some of the kids got frustrated with pins that would fall over but we had one camper who never participated in sports bowling the whole time (and even doing a happy dance when he knocked pins over!) Another thing they loved was baseball/tee ball. Of course we had to wrangle the bat from some kids before they ran (or they'd accidentally take each other out) but almost every camper wanted to play. Swimming is another great one, our kids with sensory stuff loved splashing around (they're a little young to do lap swimming). Daniel did gymnastics. Now he does scouts,horse rideing therapy. I was good at skiing as a kid.
I am good at any sport that involves little more than batting a small object away from my face in some manner. Such as ping-pong or badminton. I could play badminton really well the first time I ever played it.
Anything with a large ball, a combination of the ball fragmenting visually into pieces and something about the ball not triggering the same movements, really makes me not too great at it.
I used to like long walks and hiking and climbing trees.
I was and remain only a vaguely passable swimmer and maybe not even that, I've gotten thrown out of the deep end of pools for incompetent swimming at an age where no other kid was, and last time I went in the ocean I would've quite likely drowned without staff around.
My son has completed 2 years of t-ball, very successful. We are in 2nd year of soccer, doing ok but not as good as t-ball (lots of kids slamming into each other in soccer, C sometimes has trouble understanding it's an accident when he gets an elbow in the face). We did a year of gymnastics which he enjoyed very much, but had difficultly with some of the verbal instructions. This winter he'll do his 1st year of basketball. He's also had 3 years of swimming lessons at camp over the summer.
So far, so good as far as sports are concerned. I would say we've had a lot of success in this area.
We tried Baseball, basketball, soccer, and he wasn't into any of those sports. He wasn't READY. He is 14 now and has been involved with Hockey for almost 4 years now. He plays on a team in the fall. He also like wrestling, that starts in January.Aloha, Renee
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