Coaching special needs children

[LilSk8er24]

Hi, I'm volunteering at a rink near my house (not my home club though). I'm suppose to be working with 2 special needs little girls, on 2 different sessions. One has autism and the other has ADD. I've worked with special needs before, but not special needs with skating. I think I'm meeting the kids and their parents next Friday, but does any one have any suggestions for working with these kids?

[Jillianioso]

Hey my sister worked with an autistic girl before for skating. My biggest advice... BE PATIENT and don't be worried about attention being drawn near you. Bring little insentives such as stickers and things like that. Oh, and be careful hehe I remember one time the girl took her skate off and threw it at someone. Just be calm and patient and don't expect too much and it should be so fun!!! HAVE FUN :)

[Lutzgirl]

hi lily
Guess what i work with special needs children to!
And belive me it is fun but it takes a little longer to get adjusted to this system!
It is really rewarding working with these little angels :halo:
But it does take more time to teach them things so you need to speak clearly and fluentrly but slowly so they undertsnd because theselittle angels :halo: need more structure and support when they are skating!

Now for the parents! How can you handle this? sometimes it can be tricky! But if you know how to handle them then you will be ok!

So here is some good advice................Explain to them about the system and how it works and explain what you will be working on with there child!

Parents like to know what is happening !

Goodluck!

[jp1andOnly]

Autisitc children sometiems can not talk. Perhaps if the child can not talk the parents can show you some of the simple signs they use to communicate. Another thing is that child with Autism sometimes will not look you in the eye. They find it very unnerving. Each child is different so talking with the parents first is a good idea.

The ADD child will probably not be on task for very long. Rewards work wonders

[CanAmSk8ter]

I know more about ADD/ADHD than I'd like to. I had a little boy in my Basic 3/4 class two years ago who was very ADHD. Cute as a button, but never stopped moving, never caught directions, etc. Unfortunately, I had him a group with 11 other kids, so I couldn't do nearly as much one-on-one with him as I would have liked. I hope he shows up again this year. If I had to do it over, I would have mentioned the short attention span to his mom (I hadn't been told he had ADHD, but I've taken enough pysch and education classes for it to be pretty obvious to me) and suggested that private lessons might have been a better fit for him than group. I would have really liked working with him one-to-one.

My suggestions? Keep to her attention span. If you're "losing" her, go onto something else, even if you've only done a few repitions of something. It might work better to do three of each thing on her level, and if you have more time after you can start at the beginning again. Just don't expect her to work on one thing for long. The more stimulating you can be, the better. Don't be afraid to get silly- that helps hold their attention. What else? Oh, keep explanations short. If she's doing several things wrong, correct one, have her try it again, then correct the next thing, etc. Just be sure you give lots of positive reinforcement after each correction. For example, on crossovers:
"Not bad! Remember, you want to keep your head up. There's nothing on the ice that will trip you!" (have her try again)

"Good! I like how you kept your head up that time. Now let's work on the hard part. Should your toe pick be doing all the pushing? Try again, and see if you can use the right part of the blade to push this time." (have her try again)

"Awesome! Keep your arms still and you'll really have these down." (By this point, she may or may not have the patience to try again. As you get to know her it'll be easier for you to tell when to push for "one more time" and when to quit for the moment).

The only advice I have for you re: autism is that autistic kids sometimes have a lot of sensory issues. She may not be able to tolerate the feel of the skate boots, especially if they're new and stiff or if they're rental skates. Autistic kids are sometimes not good with loud noise, which can be an issue in a building like a rink with a high ceiling and a sound system. Also, many autistic kids don't like being touched in certain ways, and some of them really don't like to be touched at all. And, like someone else said, don't expect her to make eye contact with you, especially not right away.

Good luck, and please let us all know how it goes! I've done some work with special needs skaters through Special Olympics and through my mom's school, and it's a real challenge, but it's very rewarding too. Someday I'm hoping to start a Special Olympics skating program in my area.

[dbny]

I've given private lessons to a few kids that were neither autistic nor ADD, but may well have been borderline for those conditions. Besides using a lot of humor, there were two techniques that helped a lot:


Bring two pair of brightly colored gloves. I used red and green. Put one color on your and your student's right hand, and the other on your left hands. Now it's a lot clearer for the kids to see what you are doing with your arms. You can also say things like "Red in front" or "Red is the leader" etc.

Use washable markers on the ice. I made "waves" for the kids to follow, and even drew "trails" with different things to do marked in symbols like diamond shapes for swizzles, a spiral for "turn around" a series of "\/" for "walk like a duck", etc.

[Chico]

I have worked with special little ones too. Squat down when you can and talk to them. Contact, touching them on the shoulder or squeezing their hand, will help them to foucus in on you. Keep your instructions basic and break things down in very small steps. Too much info., nomatter how said, will make them anxious and overwhelmed. Be paitent. These little dudes can learn, just at a different pace than others. This can be a very rewarding experience. Be extra supportive to your little skaters and parents. These parents want their children to succeed even more than most if possible. What a special job to help them to do so! =-)Wear your new job with pride. =-)

Chico

[flo]

Send an e-mail to the USFSA. They have a detailed special skater's program, and put out a great notebook teaching guide. You may be able to use some of it with your students.

[LilSk8er24]

I had my first session with these kids today. The girl with autism didn't show up so I just helped some kids who couldn't skate on the session. The girl with ADD was awesome! She's such a good skater! She's really cute, but unfortunately has trouble concentrating after a while. I had to get silly and I put a beanie bag on top of her helmet and she had fun trying to skate without letting it fall, so that was fun. We ran into a little problem when practicing shoot the ducks, as she almost crashed into the boards but overall, it was fun. She's awesome, sometimes doesn't catch directions and doesn't stop moving, but awesome. She'll be good in the special olympics someday. She does have a tendacy to pick up snow of the ice and putting it in her mouth and I'm going to have to try really hard to keep her focused so she doesn't do that any more.

[CanAmSk8ter]

I'm glad you had fun and it went well! The kids with ADD can be a lot of fun because they have so much energy.

Just wanted to mention though, I don't think a kid with ADD as their only disability is eligible for Special Olympics. There are pretty detailed requirements, but one of them is that they have to have some degree of mental retardation, which ADD kids generally don't. In fact, ADD kids are often very bright.

Keep up the good work with her, and have fun!